Improper Guardian

Chapter Twenty Four

By: Brenli

"KYAAAA!"

"Oh my goodness, Doll! It's NOT that hard!" Barbiel cried and put down her ice cream bowl after finishing off the last spoonful.

"It is, too! Why do women WEAR these horrible things?" Doll cried from her spot on the ground. For the past twenty minutes she had been subjecting herself to the terror that was wearing five-inch stilettos. Barbiel had been wearing them for as long as she could remember… She could run and even fight in that particular trusty pair. Doll was making it look like it must have been a circus trick!

"We wear them to look pretty. Ohhhh…"

"IT IS A STUPID WAY TO LOOK PRETTY! WHAT ARE YOU 'OHHH'ING ABOUT?" Doll hissed as she struggled to stand.

Barbiel smirked widely at the troubled maid. "Doll…! Are you trying to impress Uriel?"

Doll gasped. "NO!"

A pause.

"… MAYBE!"

Another pause.

"… I'm not sure." Doll finished, and stopped struggling to stand. Oh, forget it. She'd just sit on the ground, then. "… I have served Uriel-sama for a long time. I don't hate it, or anything. I know he appreciates me. But he never… looks at me. You know… LOOKS… at me." The maid took out the picture she had previously looked at, and unfolded it. "… So I guess guys look at girls when they look like this?"

"Let me see that." Barbiel snatched the picture from Doll's grasp. "… Hey… isn't this… oh, what's her name? She's that vintage pinup model…"

"Katou says her name is Bettie Page…"

Barbiel snorted. "Well, that's just like him, then, isn't it?" Then she blinked. "… You're trying to impress Uriel based off Katou's judgements?"

"I don't know."

"Doll… they're nothing alike."

"… Well…"

Barbiel laughed and handed the picture back to the little maid. "Not all men are the same. They are each as complicated and unique as women are. They each have their particular flaws and fetishes. So perhaps Katou suffers from a Bettie Page fetish. Let me tell you, I highly doubt Uriel does, too."

"So what kind do you think he likes, then?"

"I don't know… I think Raphael would know that better than I do. Uriel is a distant man, Doll. I'm sure you know that by now. He is hard to read."

The conversation between these two women came to an abrupt halt as Raphael entered. The abrupt silence took him aback, and his icy blue eyes blinked rapidly. "… Don't mind me…!" He couldn't help but say it with a smile as he kissed his Angel Nurse and lovingly pressed his hand on her belly, which had only begun to actually blossom.

"… Raphael-sama?"

"Yes?" The Wind Angel looked down at Doll. "… Why are you wearing Barbiel's shoes?"

"What'sUriel'stype?" Doll asked hurriedly.

"… What?"

"Doll would like to know…" Barbiel nudged his side, "What is Uriel's… TYPE."

"… Ohhhh." Raphael quickly nodded. "… But I have no idea what his TYPE is."

Doll nodded quietly. "Oh."

A lop-sided smile touched the Wind Angel's face. "… All this mess with romance, lately… I think God is playing a cruel trick on us all."

"… You helped Nema out again, today?"

"… No. No, actually. Instead… other things happened…"

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"… N…" Oh, crap. How could Rujiel start this? He'd avoided her for a half hour, but he needed to sort this out. His lips still tingled. He knocked.

"Go away." Nema's voice was muffled behind the door.

"… Nema…"

"I don't want to talk to you…"

With that Rujiel slammed his fist on her door. "You can't kiss me and expect me to shrug it off!" The silence was deafening, now, and the frustrated I-Child took a breath. "… What was that, Nema? … Why did you do it?"

He heard the shuffling of her footsteps traveling to the door. The soft sobbing was audible, now, as he heard the weight of her body press onto the door and slide down into a crumpled, sad mess on the floor. Rujiel slid down with her, his hand brushing along the wood, wishing this locked door didn't exist.

"… I am… lonely." Nema said quietly.

"… We all are…"

She bit back a sob and tore at her snowy hair. "I wasn't ready to see him… I took one look and I wanted to… I wanted to kill him and kiss him in the same breath…"

"That is heartbreak." Rujiel said softly. "… Nema, he said that he was lied to. He said that Cheriour told him you were dead."

"It doesn't excuse what he's done… Did you hear what they have said? They've given him a goal…"

"777 of us."

"And they all want him to kill the Queen. Me." Nema paused and stared down at black fabric. It was Michael's shirt, wrinkled from all the throwing and caressing and continued throwing she made it endure. She touched it gingerly, now. "… Why would he let them do that to him?"

"I don't know, Nema…" Rujiel sighed. They still weren't talking about the kiss she had given him… but for now, he'd excuse it.

"I had hoped… that he would be stronger than that. He was always such a stubborn person… I had hoped… that he would stay that way."

"… Hey, Nema… no one ever stays the same. Life… it changes us all. Even men like him. But you know… if he's given up on you… that's his loss. You are… a beautiful person. You've got a big heart, big dreams and a lot of ambition in you. If he wants to throw that away… Then I hope that one day, you'll realize… he isn't the one for you."

"Then who is? You?" Nema sounded bitter, but Rujiel tried not to let that get to him.

"… I don't know. I am willing to try… and you know that."

Rujiel backed away just slightly as he heard the doorknob turn and click. "… I know…" She cried quietly, and she allowed herself to fall into him, allowed her sobs to get lost in his chest as her pale fingers clung tightly to the sleeves of his shirt. "I hate this…! This fucking mess…!"

"… Nema?"

This time, she allowed herself to remain in Rujiel's arms as she looked up at the source of that familiar voice. It was Raphael, standing over the tortured pair, trying to read into the desperate clinging and the gentle kiss Rujiel pressed onto her forehead.

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"… His name is Rujiel. He has been after Nema since the day he met her, from what she's told me… and it seems that now she's decided to be with him." Raphael finished.

"… Poor Michael." Barbiel said quietly.

"Well… I can't say he didn't bring it on himself. He never should have become a Rabbit Hunter."

"So Michael-sama knows Nema is alive, then, right?" Doll asked.

"Apparently."

"Then he'll quit, right? And that'll fix it?"

"… I don't know. Michael is an idiot, sometimes… And quitting won't change the fact that Nema is with Rujiel." The Wind Angel sighed. "… Every time I try to reach him, I nearly get killed. How am I supposed to be any help with that kind of constant threat? I hate to say it… but if Michael doesn't quit… I won't even try to help him out, anymore."

"That's a little harsh, Raphael…" Barbiel frowned.

"That man can't depend on ME to tell him what's right and what's wrong! It's been that way all our lives and honestly, it's time he grew the fuck up and figured out what's right for himself!" He snapped, then sighed again. "I love that brat… but I can't guide him forever. I hope… that he grows up before it's just too late." After pressing another kiss to Barbiel's lips he got up to leave. "… And Doll?"

"Yes?" Doll looked up at the Wind Angel.

"… There's only one woman I can think of… that Uriel ever loved. It's not enough to say that she is his type… but it's all I can think of."

"… Who?"

"Alexiel."

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"Ah, shit!" He swore again and again. There it was… the incessant screaming and pleading in his head… the long cries. And he couldn't get where he needed to go…!

"MIIIIIIIICHAEL!"

There it was again! It always sounded right next to him, but he never got where he needed to go. Why couldn't he ever make it? And why did it feel like he'd been through this before?

Now the Fire Angel was beginning to make out the sounds of another person… he suddenly began to wish he was deaf. Those sounds… those… grunts… were of a particular kind. And the screams… her… screams… were getting more desperate and painful.

It was her… being…

He couldn't even finish the thought. He didn't want to. Why the Hell couldn't he reach her in time? Why did it feel like he'd been through this already? He had the sick feeling that he knew what would happen next.

The noises stopped.

Michael stumbled through onto the ugly scene.

There she was, bloodied and torn all over, limp like a ghostly white ragdoll… Red, teary, angry looking eyes peered up at him through stringy white hair. "… Mi…chael…"

God, why couldn't he ever make it in time?

"Hmmm…" Came a voice from further off. There he was, with blonde hair covering his eyes, smoking a cigarette. "… Delicious."

Oh, fuck no. It happened before he could stop and wonder why it felt like he'd already been in this spot. He just didn't care, at the moment. Sword raised, battle yell ready, Michael charged forward.

Cheriour didn't even move.

Nema did.

She was beaten and bleeding, but she went after… HIM. With her own strange, indestructible Angel Crystal sword brandished and slashing at him.

Why was she after HIM? He was trying to help her! He was fucking SORRY he was late; she'd never know HOW sorry! He was gonna make it better by killing off this Angel hiding behind blonde hair and a black cloak! "What the fuck are you doing?" Michael hissed, narrowly dodging and swift slice downward.

"WHERE WERE YOU? WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?" Nema cried and screamed, over and over, slashing and stabbing… God, hadn't he been here before?

The Fire Angel suddenly felt that… strangely familiar pain and sharpness… pressing into him, tearing the flesh, the muscle, finally that fucking heart… that God damn heart… that no one assumed he had, and that he was wishing didn't exist to begin with.

He couldn't hear anything except the struggling of that damn heart, and the torn breathing that escaped his violent Queen. Her hair fell over her eyes, but that quivering lip of hers betrayed all too well her shredded emotions as she twisted her sword and stirred a painful cry out of him.

Everything was going fuzzy now… But he could have sworn he'd been here, before. "… I… am… sorry…" Michael choked it out like the blood that flowed out of his failing heart. That fucking heart.

And Nema looked up, the tears washing away little white trails through the blood on her pale cheeks. "So am I."

"S-SHIT!" The Fire Angel stuttered as he suddenly jumped. He jumped too much, got tangled in white sheets, white like her skin, and fell out of bed. "… Fuck!" He swore, the pain of the fall spreading through his body as he gingerly sat up.

The reason why it felt like he'd been there before was because he really HAD been there before. This night, like many nights before, he'd fallen prey to one of his least favorite nightmares. Why couldn't he ever make it in time? Why was it that he was always so late, too late, and he had to watch her lying there, bloody and torn, hating him because he wasn't there?

Oh God, he was woozy. After untangling himself from the pale sheets, he groaned and groped for the pills that would make the headache go away. Dammit, he wished Raphael was around. One tap and Michael wouldn't feel so dizzy from the blood loss.

The Fire Angel swallowed two pills in one gulp and let the bottle roll away from him. Hell… was Raphael even his friend, anymore? A fucking pity what a mess like love and lies can do to life. At least… when you were an Angel, anyway.

The pills were working their magic, already… getting rid of the dizziness, and making him much more alert… and attempting to speed the healing process of some peculiar wounds.

He beat his fist against the wall he now leaned on and allowed his calendar to fall off and flop over his head and into his lap. He thumbed through the pages. 3 months marked in red, and 4 marked in black. That was seven months. Over half a year and still fucking fighting. Those Rabbits could put up a fight like no other… if life could have been any different… Michael would have wanted to recruit them.

He checked the clock. It was set for Assiah Tokyo time… not for any particular reason. Just, you know, when he got bored he liked to wonder what he and Nema would be doing at that time, if they were still down there. Right now it was 2:13 A.M., Monday. Nema and Michael would have been coming back from a Harajuku nighttime brawl, then.

It is a truly terrible and frightening thing, what seven months worth of time can do to the most indestructible people. That course of time, particularly the last four months, had been uncommonly cruel to Fire Angel. After he'd found out that Nema was still alive, the daily blood withdrawals had become larger. No longer did Cheriour do the procedure. Actually, Michael rarely saw Cheriour, anymore. The man was a coward, through and through… but after four months of this kind of lifestyle, Michael almost didn't even care, anymore.

It had become blantantly obvious that Nema and this new Rabbit boy of hers were indeed an item. On the battlefield this Rabbit boy liked to take on a guardian role, watching out for Nema while she picked off who she wanted to pick off. She never wanted to pick off Michael. And the truth was, that actually hurt Michael a little bit. She held hands and kissed another man, now. You think she'd at least award the Fire Angel's sorry ass with a good fight.

He liked to pick fights with her, though. He did so at least once a day. To Nema, this was a confirmation that Michael no longer thought himself connected to her. That every slash of his sword was one more thread cut off, separating the two. He knew this merely by looking at her face. She always looked angry, but hurt. What she didn't know, or at least didn't care to believe, was that even in this sorry situation, Michael was trying to… protect her. Guard her like he should've long ago.

It was easy to think he'd just gone plumb mad or something. He allowed himself to get lost in the thrill of the fight because it was in his nature to do so. But the truth of it all was, if HE didn't fight her, someone else… with the willpower to kill her… would have attacked her. It didn't click with Nema because she thought he wanted her dead, but this was the truth: By picking fights with Nema that he purposely never finished, he was saving her life. One day at a time.

But after seven months of believing that he no longer loved her, Nema was apparently putting her all into a new relationship, with this new man. That lucky fucking bastard. And Michael was willing to believe that after all this time, Nema was probably over him completely.

You know, she had the right to be sick of him. After the things he had done… or for that matter, failed to do… Michael had made himself up into the kind of man that would've had to beg and plead in order to get her back. Well, Michael wasn't going to beg and plead. After seven months of war and lies, not even that probably would have worked, now.

Actually, the Fire Angel had come to that conclusion three days ago. And with something as hopeless and ugly as that slipping through him, and with seven months of this shit weighing down on his shoulders, he did something he never thought he'd do, because he was too strong for it.

He did it like Nema did, though he actually hadn't realized that until he was done. And now the pills he took were trying their best to heal the peculiar wounds, and making the insides of his forearms itch. Well, it was time to change the bandages, anyway. Each arm, wrapped in white gauze, bore a bloodstain in the shape of a long, red cross. Just like Nema.

Michael unwrapped bandages around the wounds and was amazed to see that the pills worked very well. Already the wounds weren't completely open. Scar tissue was beginning to fill the lines.

Apparently it was a little rash to cut himself when he gave out as much blood as he did each day. According to the Rabbit Hunter medics, he had almost successfully killed himself with the very first cut.

He wasn't really sure if that was WHY he did what he did. He didn't have much of a clue why. But he did it, just the same, and already the wounds were almost all healed, thanks to these weird pills he took.

Well, he supposed that was good. Then he could go out there and make his body count rise. It was a cold way to go about this fucking war, but the only way he felt was open to him.

Why didn't he quit? In many ways, he wanted to quit. Betrayal wasn't an option because Nema and her I-Children were unwilling to take him in. But he always could have just quit… but he didn't. His reasons changed all the time. He needed something to kill while Cheriour remained unreachable, that fucking coward. Or, this would help him keep his white wings, as if he actually cared whether his wings were white or not.

Or, this was more or less the only way he could get close to Nema. Maybe.

Well, he was close to done, already. 576 out of 777… Just 201 left. That was a lot of souls, but for how wildly and quickly Michael began killing them off, this was a small number. Actually, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to ever finish the goal. To do so meant that he would have no affiliation with the war in any way. And he would have no way to Nema. Taken or not.

… God damn that Ruji bastard! That was his name, right? Ruji something? Rujiel or Rufiel or whatever the fuck it was? Well, damn HIM. Like Michael NEEDED anything else to go wrong with his life now…! Then he had to fucking… EXIST! The Fire Angel decided that he'd try extra hard to kill Rujiel the next time. Which was going to be soon, hopefully. The weird pills were healing him up swiftly.

It was at this moment that the Fire Angel heard several voices outside his window. Throwing the calendar aside, he rushed over and found his blue-green eyes looking down at a group of nearly 20 Rabbit Hunters. It was a small hunting party, then, probably looking to ambush an equally small group of Rabbits.

"So Cheriour gave us the okay, right?"

"No, but who cares? When we get that Queen of theirs he'll be happy we –"

Michael didn't really successfully hear the rest of what was said, but, well, whatever. He heard that 'Q' word. It had been a few days since he'd fought Nema… and, well, he missed her.

The Fire Angel stifled the yawn that escaped him. Damn, the pills were supposed to work better than this.

"Move out." He heard from below.

"Fuck… fuck, fuck, fuck…!" He repeated his favorite word and stumbled to his bottle of pills, swallowing four. Four was a bit much… But whatever. It would just wake him up more, right? He grabbed his sword, and before anyone new what hit them, Michael was blocking their path, his white wings spread wide. "Going hunting without me?" He drawled.

… Why was he drawling? Michael never drawled before…

"M-Michael-sama… You aren't back on duty for another two days."

"You think I'm fucking weak?"

"N-no… But there your heart can't POSSIBLY be pumping enough blood through your body!"

"What the fuck is a heart? I have no heart." The Fire Angel let the lie slip from him. "And I'm hunting whether you like it or not."

Though Michael may have lost rank in Cheriour's eyes, to every other Rabbit Hunter he was still the mighty War Angel. After all, there was a reason why he managed to kill as many Rabbits as he did in as little time as he had an official Rabbit Hunter. And so they let this angry, if a little off-center, Angel join up with them.

The travel was long but it felt short for some reason. What little blood Michael had left was charging through him much more fast than it ought to have… Hmm. Maybe he shouldn't have popped four. That made six pills within the hour… Maybe that wasn't very smart…

Oh, whatever. Michael wasn't very famous for being a smart man, anyway. He was only so brilliant as to become a Rabbit Hunter, and lose someone he'd had the weakness to care for because of it. If that could even be called brilliance.

Well, too late now, right? The blood was rushing, but the Fire Angel's flesh remained the pearlescent pale shade that the lack of blood awarded him. He was so pale… too pale. He looked almost like he could pass off for an I-Child, but whatever. He wasn't too busy thinking about that.

He was thinking about the jolly good fight he'd have with Nema soon. It had been three days…! God, he missed her. Did she miss him? If not, he'd have to kill that Ruji bastard and get his point across. Wait, what has his point? Oh, it didn't matter. Maybe he'd just kill the Ruji bastard. He DID kiss her, and all. And no one was supposed to kiss Nema but him. Yup, so he'd kill that Ruji bastard and Nema. No, wait, he wouldn't kill Nema. Hmm… Well, he would fight her. Maybe he would, like, kidnap her or something. Wouldn't that be a mission? Steal her, yes, steal her away. Then he'd have to find that Cheriour guy… kill him off, too. Yeah, he should've done that a while ago… Well, since Michael found out Nema was alive, Cheriour had been hiding away somewhere… what the little coward! So yeah, Michael would find him somehow. Gotta kill him off. That was just… a MUST. And steal his violent Queen. Yup. So he had a plan, then? Yeah. Though the pills were making him a little dizzy. But, you know, whatever. He had a plan. That was the important part.

Oh, oh there they were! Yup, he was right. Looks like 23 Rabbits, and there she was… Nema, the violent Queen! Wearing that silly ninja dress! Okay, maybe it was kinda hot, but you know, Nema didn't need to hide her face anymore…! Mmm, Michael would have to get rid of it, then. Wait, that was really perverted, wasn't it? Whatever.

Oh, there was a little girl…! Well, that was kinda sad, wasn't it? Wait, why was she wearing Nema's dark red crown? That was HERS, dammit…! Oops. Made too much noise.

"Dammit, attack!"

Well, there went all the White Wings to beat up all the Rabbits. Oh, what was this, what was THIS? That Ruji bastard…! Running away with that little girl!

So there she was. Alone. Looking right at Michael, slipping her Angel Crystal earring out of her ear and letting it transform into her sword. She looked so fucking angry… it was… great.

Man, he shouldn't have taken that many pills…! The blood pumping was dizzying but exciting… He hoped he didn't pass out in the middle of the fight or something. She might, like, kill him.

An intoxicated, albeit cruel, smirk played over the Fire Angel's features. "… Missed ya."

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AUTHORESS NOTE: After that totally awesome posting streak, I've suddenly gotten hit with schoolwork! It's really building up, now, especially now that I'm working for the college play and all. I'm taking after Nema and being a little seamstress for the pretty costumes!

Well, I'm still not giving up, so you all know. But my updates are going to begin to slow, thanks to all the work… Yeah, it sucks.

Well, I'ma tried. Stay tuned for the next chapter… I've got an intoxicated Michael, Lucifer, Doll and maybe more of Katou's cookies.

Luci loves hugs.