In the beginning, God created everything, well, that's a bit of an overstatement, in reality, God created Her angles, and together they created the universes, some created the stars and galaxies, others worked on the planets that inhabited those galaxies, most were working on Gods new pet project, a small planet in the milky way galaxy called Earth, filled with all kinds of new things like plants and animals, as well as Gods newest creation, humans, kinda like angels but without magic, everything was going great, until a group of angels, led by one of God's favorites angels Lucifer, began to rebel, soon war broke out, some sided with God, others sided with Lucifer, in the end, good triumph over evil (at least that's how most see it) and Lucifer, as well as all those that followed him and survived the war, were cast out of heaven in fell into hell, where they became demons, eventually Earth was finished, and God sent Adam and Eve to live there in Eden, at least until Eve ate the apple from the sacred tree, but that was just the beginning, as heaven and hell were planning another war, a rematch if you will, taking place 6,000 from then, which will mean the end of the world and all who inhabit it.

5,900 years later

September 29, 1919

A demon walks thru the dark, crowded and disgusting hallways of hell, trying his best to avoid the other demons, he's on the shorter side, only 5'0 but with a stocky build, with warm brown skin covered in light brown spots, grey hair and a short beard with white streaks (if you would look closely at the beard you would see it was a bunch of feathers), and big hazel eyes made bigger by a pair of coke bottle glasses, he's wearing a hunters green dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up showing off the rose and vines tattoos up his right arm under a dark grey waistcoat, a pair of black baggy dress pants, and a pair of black dress shoes, he gets to his destination and knocks on the door.

"Come in" the voice on the other end says, the demon walks in, "ah, Merle, 'bout time you showed up," Lord Beelzebub, The Lord Of The Flies, says behind their desk.

The demon, Merle, internally rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, so what you need from me, your awfulness?" he asks rather impatient, wanting to get out of this dingy place, earth may not be perfect, but at least is not as dark and gross as hell, (at least most of it is,)

Beelzebub grumbles under their breath, "I have a job for you, there'z this angel on earth that I want you to make fall,"

Merle looks at them confused, "Ok, why exactly?"

"Armageddon iz coming and we need all the help we can get if we're gonna beat heaven,"

"Despite the fact that we have more demons down here then they have angels up there?"

"That may be true but angels are stronger than demonz, so we need all the manpower we can get"

"Fair enough, but why me, of all demons, do I have to do it?"

Beelzebub glares at him, getting tired of his constant backchat, "because it just so happenzzz that the angel in question hazz been stationed in the same town that you've been live in for the past decade, pluz it would make you uzzzeful for once," the last thing they say under their breath, though Merle hears it anyway.

"Fine, I'll do it, whatever,"

Beelzebub smirks, "Good, now hearz his file," they hand him a stained manila folder, "he frequents a place called North End Tavern And Brewery, he should be there tonight, I hope it won't take to long,"

Merle takes the folder and opens it, seeing his name, Davenport, information on him, and a (rather poor quality) picture of him, he closes the folder and puts it under his arm, "Cool, now can I go? I got better stuff to do,"

Beelzebub sighs, "Yezz, you may leave," Merle turn heel and leaves the room,

Merle walks up to North End Tavern And Brewery, specifically the back entrance, he knocks on the door and the slot on the door opens.

"What's the password?" the voice on the other end asks.

"I don't need a password," Merle says, casting a demonic Mericle.

The slot closes and the door unlocks and opens, "Have a good time, sir"

Merle walks downstairs into the tavern, now a speakeasy, and has a look around, a pretty normal bar, some tables and chairs scattered around the main area, booths by the wall, and a bar with chairs, where he sees his target, he walks over to the bar to get a closer look at him, he looks to be his height though with a slimmer build, and has ivory skin with freckles, orange slick back hair with a nice handlebar mustache and goatee, and is wearing a navy blue suit and black shoes, Merle doesn't often see angels wear any other color than white, but a little true sight reveals that he is indeed an angel, he gets to the bar, "This set taken'?" he asks the angel, who turns to him and makes a 'go ahead' gesture, Merle sits down at the bar and notes that the angel is holding a burden glass with some kind of clear alcohol in it, "Hey, bartender?" Merle calls out, the bartender turns to him, "Give me the same thing this guy has," the bartender nods, pours a glass, and passes it to Merle, "So, got a name, skipper?"

The angel turns to him, "Davenport," he says, and Merle almost doesn't hear him as he's taken aback by his eyes, his file said that his eyes were green but that was only the half of it, they're the most beautiful shade of leaf green he has ever seen, and they have flecks of gold around the pupil, and this close he sees that his freckles were also speckles of gold dusted along his cheeks, nose, and forehead that shine like glitter in the bar light, Merle has never seen a more beautiful man.

Merle realizes that he's staring, "So, what's an angel like you doing in a place like this?"

Davenport rolls his eyes a little, "Just trying to get a drink after work, just had my monthly evaluation and my boss gave me a real earful," he sighs, "You follow every rule, you do everything by the books, but then something happens that was way out of your control and that's all that they can talk about," he takes a sip of his drink.

Merle chuckles, "Yeah, that's what happens when you give people a high expectation of yourself," he takes a sip of his drink then spits it out, "Blegh, what is this, dishwater? You'd think a brewery would have better boose than this,"

The bartender hears this and angrily turns to him, "Hey, cut us some slack, the cops destroyed all our brewing equipment when this whole prohibition shit started, so this bathtub gin is the best we got till we get new equipment,"

Merle rolls his eyes, then he gets an idea, "Hey, Davenport, how would you like some real liqueur?"

Davenport sighs, "I would love a good glass of wine or even a shot of whiskey, unfortunately, I haven't had any for months,"

"What if I said that I had some at my place?"

"I'd say I'd love to believe you, but I know for a fact that all the alcohol in the whole state was poured down the drain in January, so how exactly would you have any?"

Merle smirks, "Well, let's just say I'm a bit of a sly devil if you know what I mean," he winks.

Davenport looks into his true form and his eyes widen, "I see, so I'm guessing that you weren't just flirting with me when you called me 'angel'?"

Merle shrugs, "More or less,"

Davenport thinks for a second then sighs, "Fine, but if you dare try anything, I will smite you." he says with a fierce look in his eyes.

Merle throws up his hands in a defensive manner, "No tryin' anythin', just wanna, you know, 'share with thy neighbor' and all that good stuff," they both pay for their drinks, both leaving generous tips, and Davenport casts a quick blessing that the bar owner will get their equipment back soon, they then get up from their chairs and head for the exit, now that they're standing up Merle notes that Davenport is a couple of inches shorter than him.

Davenport puts on his coat and hat as they walk, "Should we hail a cab?"

"My place isn't far,"

The walk to Merle's place is quiet, as none of them have much to say, honestly, Davenport is just hoping that he's not walking into a trap, not that he's afraid of course, he just doesn't want to have to tell Gabriel that he got ganged up on by demons because he wanted a drink, Merle stops.

"Here we are!" Merle gestures to the building in front of him.

Davenport looks up and looks confused, he was expecting Merle to take him to a dilapidated house or apartment building in a bad neighborhood, this… is a flower shop, a decently sized two-story green building, the front has double glass doors with a big glass window display step on each side and is covered by a green and white striped awning, above the awning is a beautifully painted sign with the words 'Highchurch Floral Inc' surrounded by brightly painted flowers and vines, the second floor has three windows on the front, the one in the middle has a flower box, the building is topped off by a trapezoid roof that appears to be made of glass, Davenport turns to Merle, "Are you...sure this is yours?"

"Pretty damn sure, come on, let's go in," Merle walks over to the doors, unlocks them, and walks inside, Davenport following, Davenport takes a look around inside and it just looks like a normal flower shop, with display cabinets lining the left and right walls, displays and stands around the shop, and a large counter near the back wall, the only odd thing about it is the lack of flowers, "Sorry for the lack of flowers, I put all the unsold ones in the greenhouse every night after closing, helps them keep fresher longer"

"You have a greenhouse?"

"On the roof, now come on, my apartment's upstairs," Merle gesture to the door at the back wall, Davenport walks over, they walk upstairs, Merle unlocks the door to his apartment and the walk-in, Davenport looks around the living room, the walls are covered in a two-tone green leaf print wallpaper and the floor is hardwood, there's a gold and green damask pattern couch, a coffee table with two matching side tables on each end of the couch, coasters, magazines and other miscellaneous things scattered along the tables, under it all is an oddly patterned brown rug, on the right are two doors, most likely leading to the bedrooms, between the doors is a bookshelf filled with books, a few records, some knick-knacks, and a radio, on the left is a walkway and window to the kitchen and a door most likely to the bathroom, the room is also filled with plants, Merle walks to the kitchen, "Make yourself at home, I'll be right back,"

Davenport sits on the couch a little awkwardly, it surprisingly comfortable despite how tacky it is, soon enough Merle comes out of the kitchen holding a bottle of wine and two wine glasses, he sits down on the couch, hands Davenport one of the glasses, and opens the bottle, "Sangiovese, bottle date 1900," he pours Davenport a glass then one for himself.

Davenport takes a long sip and sighs contentedly, "Ah, that's the stuff, so how exactly did you get your hands on this, how you say, illegal contraband?"

Merle looks at him and swirls his glass, "Well, when this whole prohibition thing started, I thought, 'well this is fuckin' stupid', so I tried to find some way to not go along with it, cus, you know, I'ma demon and demons aren't supposed to follow the rules, then when the cops were pouring all the booze down the sewer, I was like 'this is my chance,' so when no one was looking I miracle a few crates to my place," he takes a sip of his wine before continuing, "I managed to get at least seven crates, mostly wine, but also a couple bottles of whiskey, a really nice bottle of bourbon that I'm saving for a special occasion, three bottles of gin, and two bottles of brandy,"

Davenport finishes his glass and goes for another round, "Well, thank you for your service for not letting it all go to waste."

Merle chuckles, "No problem, so whatcha do that got ol' Gabey upset?"

Davenport sighs, "Ok, so last year I got assigned to watch over this town since there's been a lot of demonic energy around here for a while," he elbows Merle, "wonder who, anyway, so I've been here for a while, getting assignments here and there to help people, then about three of months back I got assigned to help this guy quit drinking, and a couple of days ago, he did!"

"Well, that's great."

"Yeah, and he was sober for about ten minutes, till he got hit by a car."

Merle looks at him shocked, "Jesus Crist, was he ok? Did he survive?"

"He did, but not before he was legally dead for like five minutes, I found him at the bar the next day, drunker than I ever saw him before, he just barely managed to tell me that while he was dead he saw hell, and now he was drinking to forget the horrors he saw," he sighs again and leans back.

Merle chuckles dryly, "Don't blame the guy, honestly,"

Davenport groans, lean forward, and rest his forehead in his free hand, "You should've seen him when I first met him, he had lost his job three years ago which is what led to his alcoholism, so he was spending the rest of his savings on booze and at bars, his wife got fed up with him so she left him and took the kids, he was malnourished and close to death, living in a run-down apartment, and spending almost all day every day at North End," he stops to drain the rest of his glass and pour himself some more.

Merle listens to him intently, "Jez, so whatcha do next?"

Davenport starts to sway back and forth, "I *hic* I did what I always do in these assi-assignments, I asked him about his life, I barely needed any prodding for him to spill the beans, and gave-gave him the sympathy he needed, I'm not really g-good with p-people, b-but I am good at being a s-shoulder to cry on, t-then I told him what he n-needed to hear, t-that he n-needs to stop feeling sorry for himself a-and take control of his life, that life will only get worse if he keeps going like this, I got *hic* I got him off the alcohol, got him to start eating better, helped him get a new job at a construction company that was way better than his old office job and helped him to get a new apartment, I w-wasn't an easy job, we had plenty of fights and I had to empl-employ a lot of tough love, but it was all worth it in the end, then last saturday he came over to my apartment, cleaned up nice and was going to see his ex-wife, hoping to make things work, he w-he wanted to thank me f-for all I d-did for him, then the-then the moment he left the building, BAM, damn farm truck comes out of nowhere and rams right into him going 50 in a 36, knocks him right to the ground, by the time I got to the streets the g-guy that hit him had taken him to the hospital, I-I sent out a blessing that he would make a quick recovery, it apparently worked since he was released yesterday, found him back at North End, worst than ever, he said that he died for a bit and when to hell, and the booze was helping him forget what he saw, he-he also said that life was meaningless now, if he's-if he's going to hell anyway, what's the point in trying, I-I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen, so I just...left him alone," Davenport ends his tirade and wipes his eyes.

Merle looks at him shocked, "God, I'm…I'm so sorry you had to go through that,"

Davenport sighs, "T-thanks,"

"Guessin' upstairs wasn't very happy,"

Davenport's sadness turns into rage, "Oh, don't get me started on upstairs, so I told you that I had my monthly evaluation, well, of course, the first and only thing he talked about was this whole mess, he was lecturing me like I was some misbehavin' child, he kept saying how this should have been an easy job! That this was a job that a low-level guardian angel could have done in a week! Just ca-just completely disregarding my three months of work! I m-mean, it was- it wasn't like-it wasn't like I just s-snaped my fingers and he was all hunky-dory, I just told him what he needed to hear and gave him the push he needed to realize that he needed so he could fix his own life and supported him through his journey, and if that fuckin' truck didn' come he would be completely clean n' sober n' happy, but instead e'll most likely be dead in a week, I spent three. Fuckin', Months! Tryin' to get this guy's life back together, but does Gabriel care? NOPE! All he cares is that I failed due to unfor-unforse-unforeseen circumstances, makin' me feel like I'm a faller of 'n angel, well what have you done in the past 6000 years, Gabriel? Aside from tellin' some broad she's pregnant? How 'bout you get off your ass 'n help some people 'n do some good for once in your damned existence!" Davenport ends his rant and takes a deep breath, leaning back on the couch.

Merle chuckles a little, "Tell me how you really feel, skipper,"

Davenport sighs, he notes his glass is empty again and he refills it, finishing the bottle, "So if you wanna know how my week has been, there you go, anyway, I've-I've talked enough 'bout me, what 'bout you, big guy? Howcha get a flower shop?"

Merle finishes off his first glass and gets up to grab another bottle, "Well, 'bout seven years ago, I got assigned to do a temptation, forgot what for, probably to make some guy cheat on his wife or something," he opens the cabinet, grabs a bottle, closes the cabinet, then walks back into the living room, "after the job was done I found that I liked this place and decided to stay, so I convinced Beelsabulb that me staying here would help increase the demonic levels on earth or some shit like that," He sits down on the couch, opens the bottle and pours himself another glass, "I found this place and decided to set up shop, pun intended, I don't need the money, I just like sharing all the beautiful flowers that I grow,"

"Guessin' you like plants, huh,"

"Hah, that's an understatement, hell, I made some of them."

Davenport looks at him astonished, "Really?"

"Yeah, I only made like a handful of them, the rest were made by other angels, it was a group effort, you know. Some I made because I knew it would be beneficial to the ecosystem, others I made because they looked pretty, I was really surprised when the humans started using plants for healing and stuff, seriously, who saw chamomile and jasmine flowers and said to themself 'I'ma dry, boil and drink these bitchs, that oughta be good,'"

Davenport giggles, "So, why didcha fall?" he asks, in that state of drunkenness that he lacks a filter, he quickly realizes what he said when he sees Merle's shocked face, "O-oh, I-I'm so sorry, I-I-I didn't mean to,"

"Naw, naw, naw, it's ok, I mean you talked about your bad experience, it's only fair I talk about mine," Merle takes a long sip of liquid courage, "I wasn't anythin' special, just another face in the crowd, but I was fine with that, I was a healer durin' the war, manly just sitting on the sidelines and helping anyone who was hurt, a lot of other angles called me lazy and a coward for it, but I didn' care, I've never been much of a solder, I meen, I can hold my own in a fight, but when you put me against an army of way stronger angels with flaming swords, I'd be angel dust faster than you can say 'forgive me, Father, for I have sinned,' so I stayed out of the way and made myself useful by helping those who needed it," he takes another sip then turns to Davenport, "What about you, did you fight in the war?"

Davenport nods, "Y-yeah, I-I mean everyone fight in the war in some-in some part, but yeah, I did fight, racked up q-quite the body count too, n-nothing I'm proud of, mind you, but you did whatever you could to survive, you know,"

Merle nods, "So, after the war, things were pretty quiet, I'd go down to earth to check on things, see how my plants were doin', do a couple miracles, you know, normal angel stuff, things were good for a few millennia, then the ark happened, I just couldn't wrap my head around it, why would you just wipe out everything you've worked so hard on, except some guy and his family plus two of each animal, just because some people were bad? She couldn't just, I don't know, use that big, imposing presence of Hers to just tell them to knock it the hell off, and what made Noah and his family so special?" he sighs and shakes his head, "it just never made sense to me, and I made my opinion very vocal, though looking back I shoulda kept my mouth shut, word got around and I got confronted by some Archangels and a couple Seraphs, they...they apparently thought that I was going to start another war, yeah, imagine that a nobody angel like me startin' a revolution, yeah right, but I guess they were so paranoid that anyone that wasn't 100% onboard with Gods 'ineffable plan' was considered a threat, they told me that I would be let off easy if I just confess to what I've been planing, I told them I haven't been planing shit but they didn't believe me so one of the Seraphs snapped his fingers and… I fell."

Davenport looks at Merle with a blank stare but is holding onto every word, he sees Merle's hands tighten around the glass and is worried for a moment that the glass might break.

"Fallin' hurts, by the way," Merle continues, "the feathers on my wings burned off and it took months for them to grow back, and when they did they came back black, though that wasn't the only thing that changed, see every demon seems to have an animal or insect or whatever theme to them, and that theme usually affects our physical form, don't really know how, think it's just random, anyway, my theme is owl, and let me tell you that took quite a bit to get used to, did you know that owls can't move their eyes, they're like tubes, no idea what genius came up with that but if I ever met them I'm gonna give them a good kick in the pants, same with whoever made elderberries and deadly nightshade look the same, anyway I eventually figured out that if I concentrate hard enough I can make my eyes normal, which helps me fit in with humans,

"But what hurt the most was losing my ability to heal, well technically I still can still heal, but it hurts as much as it helps, so I only uses it when I absolutely need to, I still wanted to help people, even though I really shouldn't, so I learned to do it the old fashioned way, or new fashioned way as it were, I learned the basics first, of course, how to clean, suture and bandage a wound, but that was just the beginning, I get assignments to all around the world, and every place I would go, I would always make sure to learn at least one thing about their medical practises and wrote all that I learned into journals, China, Egypt and India were the best for studying medicine, and Eurupe, heh, well the less said about that the better, I still have all those journals by the way, though at least half of the info in them is out of date, but hey, that's what happens when medical breakthroughs are being made everyday," he finishes off his glass, "durin' the late 1700s, I thought it would be good if I got proper medical training, so I started going to medical school, I went for the full four years and I go back every couple decades or so for at least one or two years," Merle realises Davenport has been quiet for a while, he turns to him, "You've been quiet for a bit, Dav, did I put you to sleep?"

Davenport tries to sit up, "I-I...I'm" he sighs in frustration, he then takes a deep breath and concentrates, then all the wine he consumed returns to its bottle, he sits up straight and turns to Merle, "Merle, I'm so sorry, it really wasn't my place to ask, and I'm so that happened to you,"

Merle smiles a bit, "Thanks, though it's no big deal, it happened ages ago,"

"Still, I shouldn't have brought it up,"

"It's no problem really," Merle waves it off, though he does appreciate Davenport's genuine sympathy and comfort, you don't get much of that in hell, "and besides, being a demon ain't all bad, I can turn into an owl whenever I want, so that's cool, plus most of my jobs are just sleeping with other people,"

"Oh, that's interesting, so it's true what they say that demons can sense lust?"

"Well not all of them, see just like how demons are given an animal theme, they're also given a sin to represent, and those sins often influence what assignment they get, for instance, a wrath demon will influence someone to take revenge into their own hands, a lust demon like myself will sleep with other people, ether to just cheat on their spouse or to cause a scandal, an envy demon will make someone jealous of someone else, etcetera etcetera,"

"Guess your job's a fun one, huh?"

"It is a bit, but after a while bangin' random people get a bit...lonely, you know, people always coming and going," Merle chuckles, "coming, get it?" he nudges Davenport who groans in disgust, "and seriously, does no one these days know how to cuddle anymore? Usually, they just leave right after it going on about how much of a mistake it was and if they could ever be forgiven, yeah, should have thought about that before you banged some random guy you met at a bar, what's done cannot be undone and all that," Merle sighs.

Davenport giggles a little, then his tone gets a little serious, "So, everything you do is consensual, right?

Merle looks at him a little offended, "Of course, I always make sure I get one hundred present consent before I do anything to anyone, trust me, Dav, I'm a demon, not a monster,"

Davenport sighs in relief, "That's good to hear, I've heard some bad stories,"

"Trust me, I've met those kinds of demons that take pride in doing that kind of stuff, and they're as disgusting as they sound," Merle shakes his head, "but, yeah, I always make sure to get permission before anything, you'd be surprised with how many people back out of it before we even do anything past kissing, which is fine, they either leave immediately or we have a small chat about it, honestly the worst part of the job is when the spouse comes home early, best-case scenario, I have enough time to either a. sneak under the bed and wait till they go to sleep so I can sneak out or b. jump out the window, worst case scenario the spouse burst into the room and I have to either deal with a screaming wife or almost get my lights punched out by an angry husband, and in those situations, I'm mostly focused on gettin' my ass out of there before things get dirty, but other than all that, it's a fun job."

Davenport chuckles quietly, he looks over to the clock on the side table and gasps when he sees its past midnight, "Oh jeez, it's so late, I need to get home," he gets up from the couch and walks over to the door, before he opens the door he turns to Merle, "Thank you for the wine Merle," he pauses for a second, "and for listening to my drunk rant, I...I've really have had a long week and I really needed to get that off of my chest,"

Merle smiles, "No problem, Dav, and hey, I got plenty more liquor where that came from, so if you ever need a drink, or to vent, or both, my doors always open, figuratively of course,"

Davenport smiles back, "I'd like that," with that he leaves the apartment.

Once Davenport leves, Merle lays down on the couch, covers his eyes, and groans, he was supposed to make this guy fall, he's never made an angel fall before, of course, the obvious way would be to sleep with him, but Davenport doesn't seem like the type of guy to sleep with some random guy he met at a bar, (hell, he was surprised he even came to his apartment in the first place,) plus Davenport already knows he's a demon which is going to make things harder, what's also going to make things harder is that he doesn't want to make him fall, he's nice, genuinely nice, not that fake nice he gets from other people and angels (mostly angels) who are trying to present themselves as good people instead of actually putting the effort into being a good person, he gave him genuine sympathy after hearing his story instead of pity or the good ol' 'just get over it, it happened eons ago, we all got issues,' he gets from other demons.

Davenport also wasn't afraid of him despite knowing that he's a demon, but it's not because he's dumb or gullible or anything, sure he doesn't know why he trusted him, hell he doesn't even know if he does trust him, he probably just came for the free booze and knew that if Merle tried anything he could easily take him down, angels are stronger than demons after all, even if Merle was physically stronger than Davenport, he's strong in will and in character, and despite him only being about 4'10, he carries himself with the same confidence of someone who was 6'0 tall, and the nail on the coffin, Davenport actually does his job, and he seems to like his job at that, Merle has met so many angles, both before and after the fall, that treated helping people like an inconvenience or a chore, like taking out the trash or doing the dishes, hell, even he's guilty of doing the same thing, but Davnport, he spent three months just to help some guy he didn't even know prior with his alcoholism, most of the angels he use to know would give up after three days, let alone three mounths, heaven needs more angles like him, angels that were more focus on makeing the world a better place and weren't so obsessed with defeating hell, he's never gotten heaven and hells whole 'evil must triumph over good' or whatever, one of the many things he's learnd over the many centuries of travaling all around the earth is that good can not exist with out evil, but, hey, thats none of his business.

His hands fall to his chest and he sighs, he wonders if he'll ever see Davenport again, sure they live in the same town so they're bound to bump into each other, plus he's probably the only guy in the entire state with good alcohol, but if he was being honest, he didn't want Davenport to only hang out with him because he has hooch, as weird as it sounds, plus he's pretty sure Prohibition is going to end in a decade or so, (at least he hopes so), as sad as it must sound, especially coming from a demon, but all Merle really wants out of Davenport is a friend, he wasn't lying when he told Davenport that sleeping with random people gets lonely, plus he's never gotten along with other demons, especially since all they want to talk about is all the sins they've committed which gets rather boring after awhile, he's had plenty of human friends, sure, but they often don't stick around past two or three years and those who do, well, humans don't exactly live long in the eyes of an immortal.

But whether or not Davenport will hang out with him would not be his biggest problem if he doesn't corrupt him.

No, the biggest problem for him will be Hell, if he tells his boss that he's not going to do his job he will definitely get reprimanded for it, less of a stern talking to, more of a couple of centuries in pain and torment, and that will not be good. Although when he comes to think about it, he doesn't have to tell his boss, he could easily just tell them that the job is going to take a long time, after all, corrupting an angel isn't exactly easy, and Merle has never exactly been a competent demon, so it wouldn't be all that surprising if the job took a while, so if he plays his cards right, he could convince his boss and the other demons that he's still working on his assignment when he's not, and hopefully, they'll either just forget or just stop caring, and he'll continue to hang out with Davenport, or just let him go about his life.

Merle yawns and decides to go to bed, deciding that that's a problem for tomorrow.

Davenport closes the door to his apartment behind him and sighs, leaning against the door, did he seriously just follow some random stranger he met at a bar (a random demon he met at a bar at that) to his place for the promise of liquor? Like some kid following a creepy old man who says he has candy? Merle could have been leading him to some back alley where a legion of demons were waiting for him, which would be no good, one demon he can handle easily, two he'd have trouble with but could still handle, three or more and things would get messy,

But the thing is Merle didn't lead him to a trap, he actually took him to his home, his rather lovely and comfortable home that was also a damn flower shop, and he actually delivered with the booze, and he didn't try anything when he was wasted, and, just to hit the nail on the coffin, he actually listened to his drunken rant, and actually seem to care, too. Davenport rarely has the time to vent out his frustrations, and when he does it either to himself or disinterested bartenders that are just hoping for a tip, another time he tries to voice his frustrations or someone they ether brush him off or tell him to 'get over it,' or 'be a man' or 'people have it worse than you,' and other garbage like that, but Merle actually listened to him, and at no point did he interrupt him or tell him that he's overreacting, he just let Davenport talk and gave him sympathy when he needed it. The first time he's gotten something like that from someone in over 5,000 years, and it's from a demon, Davenport sighs again, 'I guess it's true what they say,' he thinks to himself, 'you can't judge a book by its cover', he shakes his head, walks over to his couch, and sits.

He hopes he'll see Merle again, he knows where he lives and since they live in the same town they're bound to run into each other, plus Merle seemed to want to see him again, and he definitely wants to see him too. Not just because he has booze, (though that was a plus), he wants to see Merle because, well, because he like him, he just so kind and sincere and charming, (and, low-key, kinda handsome,) he doesn't see that in most demons, hell, he doesn't see that in most angels really, and he liked being around him, even if it was for a short time, and he wants to be around him more, even though he knows heaven will disapprove.

Oh lord, Davenport didn't even think about that, how would heaven react if they found out that one of their own was fraternizing with a demon? What would they do to him? And more importantly, what would they do to Merle? If heaven were to ever find out about their interactions, they would most likely assume that Merle had tempted him, and if they blamed Merle who knows what they'd do to him, they could hurt him, or worse. Davenport couldn't live with himself if Merle got hurt because of him,

Although, Davenport slowly realizes, heaven doesn't have to know, it's not like it'll come up in his next evaluation, and if they do find out he could just say that he's keeping an eye on him to make sure he stays out of trouble, though if he plays his cards right they won't find out about Merle at all.

Davenport yawns and remembers how late it is, he gets up from the couch and heads to the bathroom to get ready for bed, deciding to figure this out tomorrow.