Falling Together

Chapter 6: Can't We Have a Day Where Nothing Bad Happens

"Awww!" Vignette enthused, rubbing her cheek in excitement, "those Koalas are adorableee!"

Gabriel said nothing, too focused on the feeling of the demon's hand in her own to respond. While her friend had let go once they were on the train, upon arrival at the zoo Vignette's enthusiasm returned in full force and she took the angel by the hand once more to drag her from exhibit to exhibit. She would never admit it, but Gabriel did have to admit that there was something in the gesture that just felt right.

"Gabriel?"

Blinking out of her reverie, the failangel looked up to see her purple-haired friend staring at her with a mixture of confusion and just the slightest hint of guilt. Ah crap! she thought, if I keep wandering off like that, she's gonna think I'm having a bad time!

With a small cough and even smaller blush Gabriel replied, "Yeah, definitely. I mean, just look at their ears... and their tails... and their, like, eyes, I guess?"

A small frown crossed Vignette's face, but instead of directly addressing the obvious tension she said, "Would you like to take a break? We can go grab something to eat from one of the stands or something!"

Similarly avoiding the issue, the angel answered only with a nod.

...

Any passing stranger would assume that Gabriel found her slushie incredibly engaging considering the intensity with which she stared at it. They would, however, be wrong; once more in the grip of embarrassment and uncertainty, she was simply using the beverage as an excuse to avoid her friend's gaze, a fact she was keenly aware of.

Vignette, for her part, was staring at the angel's face with all the intensity and concern she had at the start of the work. The air felt heavy and tense, and neither knew how to shatter the awkward atmosphere.

Finally, unable to take it any longer, the demon folded her hands on the table and said, "I'm sorry if I'm making this boring for you. I know it was your idea to come here, but I've been the one choosing where we go and what we see. It's probably really boring and annoying to get dragged around like that, right?"

A dark shadow fell across her face as she added, "Kind of funny, isn't it? Normally being demonic is totally beyond me-I couldn't imagine hurting anyone! But today I've been pretty awful to you without even trying, huh?"

There were a great many things Gabriel was unsure of in life-what she wanted to do, who she wanted to be, even why she bothered leaving the house-but she was absolutely certain that she couldn't stand hearing Vignette direct all that guilt at herself.

This has probably been building all week, huh? She suddenly realized, reflecting on how intentionally distant she'd been towards the demon all week. And she thought it was her fault the entire time...

So, though she was still unsure of her feelings or what she wanted from Vignette, Gabriel slowly stretched her hand across the table to take hold of her friend's. Refusing to meet the demon's eyes, she said, "It's not like I was bored. Coming to the zoo wasn't really my idea exactly, it was more of, like, just a random thing. You're way more into this than I am, and I'm having way more fun watching you enjoy it than I would have gotten from coming here myself."

Summoning up every ounce of her lacking will, the angel forced herself to look Vignette in the face as she finished, "I didn't want to go to the zoo. I wanted to come with you somewhere... we just sort of ended up at the zoo."

The demon didn't say anything for a long moment. Instead, she stared at her friend in an entirely different light than she had a moment ago. The shadow faded and was instead replaced with a small sparkle dancing in her eyes and a blossoming impression of red in her cheeks. Finally, as Gabriel felt her own face heat up in response, the demon simply nodded in reply. The pair stood up, hand in hand again-though this time allowing their fingers to slide apart and interlock-the wandered back into the zoo at large.

Walking away, Gabriel was unsure how she felt about her words. A part of her felt guilty for them; she felt as if she said them because they were supposedly 'on a date'. But another part of her knew that was wrong. A part of her knew that those words were exactly how she felt about Vignette, about spending time with her, being around her.

And she that was the part of herself she was most uncertain about.

...

The pair walked through the zoo once more, but this time there was a smile on both of their faces. They went from exhibit to exhibit, but they weren't the main attraction-the feeling Gabriel got when her friend wrapped herself around the angel's arm, the color rising in her cheeks every time she let herself steal a glance at the demon, and the sense that she had forgotten why she came took their place.

As the day came to a close, Gabriel and Vignette found themselves sitting on a bench watching the passing patrons and the setting sun. Even now, they held hands, though now Vignette simply lay her own on Gabriel's.

The failangel felt truly at peace in a way she hadn't felt in a very long while-at least since she had come to Earth. While she was incredibly happy with her lot ever since arriving (likely due in no small part to Vignette's aid), it had its own stresses and troubles. She hadn't even been able to escape them at home, driven as she was to constantly immerse herself in online entertainment; the closest she ever obtained was the occasional moment she remembered to sleep or simply passed out unceremoniously after a full night or two of uninterrupted gaming.

In the midst of this happiness, her objective returned to her and doubt filled her heart. She knew that the whole point of the date was to find out how Vignette felt about her. She knew that the mood was perfect o ask. But she also knew that this moment would end the moment she asked the question.

The disappointed face of Tapris crossed her mind and with it came guilt. Then she imagined the gloating face of Satania ("defeated by a date!? how pathetic! ufufufu!"), and she began to fill with conviction.

Then she imagined the smug face of Raphiel watching her get worked up over her uncertainty.

That cinched it.

"H-hey, Vignette?" Gabriel began, cursing the small stutter that undercut the air of nonchalance she was trying to affect.

Her friend turned to her, the small smile still fixed on the demon's face as she said, "Yes, Gab?"

Clearing her throat to give her another moment to prepare herself, the angel finally asked, "Do you like me?"

For a split second surprise, confusion, and maybe-though Gabriel put it down to wishful thinking and ignored what that wish was-the slightest hint of interest crossed Vignette's face, but almost immediately her smile reasserted itself.

"Of course, Gab!" The demon said. "You're my very best friend!"

...

"What's happening!?" Tapris asked, desperately jostling to get a better view.

"Down, lesser being!" Satania said, elbowing the young angel off of her and turning to guard the binoculars in her hands. "The great archdemon is using them now!"

Raphiel chuckled, lowering her own opera glasses to watch the arrogant demon and naive angel bicker, petting the much better behaved Kurona's head all the while. When the fighting died down, she raised the miniature binoculars once more and said, "Gab-chan has just started to walk away, and Vigne-san keeps trying to stop her! Oh, and now it seems like Gabriel's stop to say something... and, yes, she's walking away again! Vigne-san's stopped now, and is just watching Gab walk away now! And... yes, she's walking away a in a different direction!"

Her play-by-play was interrupted by the ringing of her phone, and with a small ill-intentioned grin she revealed to the others that it was the kind demon calling them. Answering it-and subtly switching it to speaker-she said, "Why hello, Vigne-san! How is your date with Gab-chan going?"

A coughing and spluttering was heard not only from the other end of the line but also from the two less-composed creatures before her, and both Tapris and Satania seemed scandalized at the idea that Raphiel would give away their game so casually.

However, if Vignette read anything in the comment beyond the superficial, she didn't show it. Instead she said, "Well, it started off alright... actually, it started off amazing! She, um... she took my hand as we went onto the train (probably because she could tell I felt bad you couldn't come-but it's not like I hold that against you! I know you had important stuff going on!) and she seemed kind of bored when we got to the zoo, but then..."

...

"...and then she said okay, but it really didn't seem like she was okay! Then she started walking away, saying how she had to do something before going home. I offered to come along, but she said it was fine and I should probably get on the train before it got dark; I was going to push to come along, but she was really insistent that it was fine and that she could go by herself and I wouldn't enjoy it. At first, I was going to come along anyway, but I thought that she might be mad if I did... what should I do!?"

Raphiel turned to her gathered allies with a smug grin before asking, "Well, why do you think Gabriel is mad?"

For a moment the demon was knocked into silent contemplation. At length she said, "...I guess I don't know if she is, do I?"

Groaning inwardly at the innocent demon's density, the sadistic angel instead declared, "You should absolutely run after her! You'll never know if you just leave now! And I know you, Vigne-chan; you're far too nice to simply leave when you think Gab-chan has been hurt!" Her grin turned into a cruel curve that seemed to chill even Kurona, whose ordinarily taciturn expression was broken with wide, quivering eyes. "It's one of your best qualities.

Another moment passed before Vignette finally said, "Yeah! Yeah, you're right, Raphi! Thank you; I can always turn to you when I need help!" The naive demon then hung up.

"Any time, Vigne-san!" Raphiel sing-songed to herself, "any time~!"

No sooner than the demonic angel had even fully returned her phone to her pocket Satania piped up, "What was that!? The date was almost over!" Her finger thrust out at Tapris as she declared, "We had almost defeated this foolish angel!" She paused, turning to Kurona and added, "And her assistant. How could you bring them back together!"

Tutting quietly, Raphiel answered, "Satania, don't you know that it's my duty as an angel to assist those in need regardless of situation? And surely the great Satania-san couldn't possibly lose to a lesser creature!"

"Well, of course not!" Satania said, jutting her chest out with pride as she was momentarily distracted by her sadistic friend's words. However, she quickly returned to her original point, saying, "But still-"

Raphiel deftly took hold of the demon's wrist, pulling her close-and eliciting a squeal from Satania in the process-before whispering in her ear, "it's far too late for them this evening, Satania-san~. No matter what happens here, it will only serve to make our conquest easier."

A blindingly red blush filled Satania's face, and for a moment her whole head was as red as her hair. She yanked herself away, staring anywhere that wasn't the angel as she nodded, muttering, "w-well, in that case, I suppose it's fine..."

Smiling at this, Raphiel turned to direct a wink at Kurona and Tapris. The pair, until now watching the display before them intensely, turned away as Tapris let out a squeak of her own, and even the unemotive demon seemed a touch less unshaken than normal.

...

Gabriel stood outside some convenience store-she wasn't sure which one, the shadow of the swiftly coming evening and the unfamiliar scenery leaving her guessing-and stared at a vending machine. Really, she had no business here, or anywhere else for that matter, but some part of her felt deeply hurt. The truth was that she had run away to go lick her wounds, and she was painfully aware of that fact.

The worst part was that she didn't know why it hurt so much. After all, Vignette had said nothing wrong. If anything, she had paid Gabriel a compliment; among their friend group, sometimes the demon was far too giving in her role of 'the responsible one' and it felt like she was only paying so much attention to Gabriel because the lazy angel needed it the most.

But it still didn't feel right to be called 'her best friend'. And that was the difficult part. After all, she was Vignette's friend, and wasn't the uncertainty about how the demon felt about her the source of all the trouble through the past week?

As she considered that, it suddenly occurred to her that despite all the time she spent thinking about how Vignette felt about her, she hadn't thought about how she felt about Vigne-

"Gabriel?"

The failangel's train of thought was derailed at the unexpected sound of her friend's voice, and her face must have conveyed this because as soon as she saw Gabriel's expression the demon said, "I, um, I got worried, that, um, you wouldn't be safe if you took the train alone, so I came back for you..."

Never a particularly expressive person, even Gabriel couldn't suppress a small grin at her friend's clumsy lie. Vignette was almost painfully honest, and every time she tried to tell anything but the truth the only person who thought it worked was her. Deciding not to call her friend out, she instead said, "well, alright. I was just grabbing something... you want one too?"

At first the demon nodded, but she suddenly stopped and cocked her head to the side, asking, "Oh right, didn't you have something important to do?"

Grimacing internally, Gabriel said, "Eh, turned out I couldn't do it, so I was gonna stop here and then head home."

Fortunately for the failangel, Vignette's infallible honesty also meant she accepted what was said to her at face value, and instead of questioning her further the demon said, "Alright then. In that case, I'd like a coffee milk, please!"

...

Kurona and Tapris said nothing, their eyes sparkling as they pushed their faces against the interior window of the train car they were riding. Satania watched them uncertainly, wondering aloud, "shouldn't we pull those two fools off of the window? If they disturb them, our plans will be ruined?"

Grabbing the demon's hand and pulling it into her lap with a malignant chuckle, much to Satania's embarrassment, Raphiel replied, "Oh, it will be fine. Those two are in the next car, so I doubt they can hear anything. Even if they could, they're in no state to notice~!"

Satania glanced through the window their younger allies occupied to watch Gabriel and Vignette leaning against one another-the angel at some point finally slumping over until she was practically sleeping in her kind friend's lap-and, watching their peaceful faces, the often contrarian demon couldn't help but agree.