Chapter Text
The familiar corridors of Stratford were lulling in a way that Michael couldn’t put into words.
He had not been here for more than a couple of weeks—in human time, too!—but they were fond memories, nonetheless.
Fond in the way that you look at a stone that crossed your path. A stone that crossed your path and made you stumble. Several times. Still fond.
Whatever the case, Michael knew he couldn’t remain in this corridor, looking like an idiot when he had a job to do.
He had to find the Elector, William, before his next class and try to convince him to pick the right choice. The correct answer so he could collect his soul and kiss this pathetic world goodbye.
By God, if it wasn’t hard to form coherent thoughts here. Merely breathing human air already felt like he was losing cognisance.
As he was about to finish the corridor and turning right to start descending a flight of stairs, he felt someone collide against him.
The resounding crash—he didn’t fall down like an imbecile, he was made into God’s image!—was pitiful.
“Oh, I’m so sorry senior!” A squeaky, annoying voice filled his ears. This human body, for all its faults, at least wasn’t as gifted in the auditory aspect, so it was merely annoying instead of shrill to the point of being painful.
He smiled, sweetly. Elliot Eden would smile.
“Do not worry, accidents happen. Are you hurt? Do you need me to take you somewhere?”
The boy stiffened in front of him. His big doe eyes were filled to the brim with unshed tears. He thinks this body vaguely remembers his name—Sean Christian, was it?
“Waaaaah, senior is so much cooler than what the stories said about him!” He swooned, which made Michael’s worse instincts to awaken. The desire to stamp him against a wall and clease him from his sins was powerful, but he was able to bottle it down. He was a man—or, really, an angel—on a mission. Wasting time on a stupid piece of clay was no more useful than trying to engage in more asinine conversation.
“Oh, shush. You’ll make me blush like that,” he fortunately doesn’t do what his baser instincts tell him, and the fact that he is still in the presence of this human, feeling no need to run away from him concerns him.
He’s just a human, isn’t he?
“I must apologize, really. If it weren’t for your help here, I would’ve fallen down the stairs and broken my neck.”
Speaking of catastrophizing.
Michael smiles awkwardly instead of deigning to give a response.
After that, things started to get weird.
“There has to be something I can do for the senior for his help…” the boy pouted, his hand going to the lapels of Michael’s suit, feeling him like some sort of devil spawn.
Michael’s head started blaring alarms.
“Uh…”
The boy’s features remained so innocent, despite the not-very-innocent touching he was doing.
Without trying to make it look like he was panicking, Michael took both of his hands between his own, putting a stop to the non-consensual touching he was doing. He would know about non-consensual touching, too.
“No need to make up for it,” he shook his head, smiling still like a deluded idiot that couldn’t see what was clearly going on. “No harm, no foul right? We’re both okay and that’s all that matters.”
The boy pouted again, his ploy having clearly been put to a stop early on. He didn’t look like he would pause any time soon, but his hand stopped roaming, or trying to get another go at him, so Michael finally let go of them.
“Of course, senior is so full of wisdom. Would you happen to know where Twining is? I was hoping he would help me with…”
“Help with what? I remember saying that I wouldn’t help you unless you got that Latin homework done, Christian.”
As Michael was about to make up an excuse to get away from that twerp, they both heard William Twining, the man of the hour, coming around the other way of the corridor. He had a Latin book on his hand and seemed to be not at all perturbed by the situation he had found them in.
Then again, if he was surrounded by demons the twenty-four hours of the day, perhaps witnessing some non-consensual touching was not too unusual for him.
Sean’s eyes immediately filled with awe upon seeing William, running to his side like he was some sort of puppy going to their master. Oddly enough, it filled Michael with a sensation of anger.
For what reason, he couldn’t really tell.
“Oh, but can’t I tempt you? I have already told you, my father makes the best sweets in the entire universe. I’m sure if you take me in, he will give you as many as you request of him.”
The mere proposition seemed to have annoyed Twining, given that he rolled his eyes and tried descending the stairs to get away from both of them, opening his Latin book with practiced exasperation.
“And~” the boy sing-sang this, twirling in his place and raising his voice to make himself heard to the other. “He has connections in the parliament. I’m sure he could snag you a couple of dinners with high-ranking officials.”
Like a charm, those words made the Elector close his book and turn back at them. The greedy glimmer in his eyes was proof enough that he had been won over, but his face formed an expression like he was doing his damnest to make it seem like he wasn’t interested at all.
Michael was flabergasttered at this… and kind of disgusted, too. Was this truly all that he needed to tempt the Elector, using some pretty words about cozying to higher ups and alleged dinner dates with powerful people? He could have done that the first time he came here!
William raised an eyebrow, clearing his throat.
“Listen to me, Christian. I will give you the tutoring you’re asking of me, but you better be ranked number two on our next test after I am done with you. If you’re not, the deal is off and you’ll still owe me your father’s dinner.”
Sean Christian, for all his playwords, didn’t seem at all threatened by William’s sudden dark aura. If anything, he seemed to be comforted by it.
Humans were definitely weird. Michael was starting to remember why he didn’t like mingling much with them.
“Yessir~” then, Christian proceded to… purr?
Almost like his perplexed thoughts were being broadcasted, William’s attention turned to him, his gaze quizzically turning suspicious.
“Eden…” he muttered, almost low enough for Michael not to hear him. “Uh, can I help you?”
Michael needed to retreat. There was something about that boy, Sean Christian, that suddenly didn’t sit up well with Michael. For some reason, he felt like…
Well, he felt familiar. For reasons he couldn’t comprehend. For reasons he’d rather comprehend before trying to engage him again.
He shook his head, smiling what he hoped was a rather conservative smile, passing them by and looking like he had been caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Not at all… Twining, was it?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I was searching for my Lectionary and Evangeliary. I might have forgotten them at the church so if you’ll excuse me…”
All suspicion erased from William’s face, he nodded, stepping aside so he could descend the stairs and get as far away from them as he could.
This boy seemed to be oddly fond of William. For what reasons he couldn’t tell, but as far as Michael remembered, those closest to the Elector always seemed to be demons, so was there a chance that he could be…?
Well, he attempted to do… whatever that was with Michael. The lapels of his uniform still burning with the cursed touch. It would be fitting, too, for a demon to disguise himself as a child, one that looks so guileless and dared to do such a demonic thing as try to seduce an angel.
Not that he’d know Michael was an angel, but that wasn’t the point.
Given how messy his thoughts were, he knew that he had to get to the church and have some respite. He wasn’t lying—in its entirety—when he told both the elector and the child that he had pending matters. He wondered if Uriel was here, too, and if he would be willing to be Michael’s sounding board.
Given how many things they’ve gone through, Michael figured that it was the least he could do, given that Michael had left him his own wings as a farewell gift. If he became a little fond of him at the end of the day, that was no one’s business but his own.
If only the other could remember it, though.
For all that he had moaned and complained about the human world, there was still beauty to be seen, his father’s creations so wonderful despite their innate cruelty. Gabriel’s voice retelling him of the many, many species of birds that had been given birth since he had last stepped foot on Earth, the way some fishes could change forms to fit their survival, and even how some species had been named after Michael’s own intervention in Human history.
Being on Earth and reminded of all that she had given him stung in a way that also brought back memories of the very day he lost her. For so long he had considered himself to be her number one priority, not even after that second-class god or the spawn they had created… not even after Father.
But just like everyone else, she had left him behind.
Michael stopped just before the doors of the church, feeling bereft at the downwards spiral his thoughts had taken.
He had thought he’d gotten rid of these feelings, but apparently that wasn’t as true as he remembers.
Not before long, the doors to the church opened and before him Uriel appeared, in his human guise and looking like he had not slept in a long while.
Michael couldn’t, for once, relate.
“Hey, how may I help…?” Uriel had to be so incredibly sleep deprived if it took him this long to notice it was Michael in front of him, because he yelped upon eye contact.
He quickly recovered, luckily, though he didn’t seem as fond of Michael as Michael was of seeing him. “Just what in the Holy Father are you doing here? I thought I was clear when I told you that trying to damage my Master…”
Michael scoffed. “I’m not here to deal with that failure of a man you call Master,” he rolled his eyes, entering the church and feeling the angelic energy in himself settle. “I know this must be unfathomable to you, but not everything is about William Twining.”
More than reassuring Uriel of his entirely benign intentions, Michael’s unusual and honest answer confused the ex archangel. With given reason, too—if not to accost his Master, then what was he doing here?
“But it’s not a friendly visit, is it?” Uriel said, walking slowly, so very slowly, back into the church and following Michael.
Michael sat on one of the pews, the smell of wood and cinnabar comforting and familiar. “Would you like it to be?” He smiled mischevously, noticing instantly how Uriel’s eyes filled with terror.
Adorable.
He sobered up, perhaps too quickly.
“Do you happen to be acquainted with a student named Sean Christian?” Michael asked, nonchalantly, looking at the Monstrance and the light that filtered through it. If he seemed like he wasn’t gauging Uriel’s expression, the other would let the emotions course more freely through his face.
Uriel seemed to react to the name, though his brows furrowed in confusion. Like a reflex, one of his hands went to the shoulder that held his lone wing.
“I am familiar with him. A little unruly, asks… interesting questions about the Mass. Why the sudden interest?”
Michael shrugs. He turns back to look at the former archangel, schooling his expression so he looks perplexed and not suspicious. “This body—Elliot Eden, that is—knows of him but only in passing. I crashed into the boy a few minutes ago and he seemed… oddly cozy with the Elector.”
Uriel didn’t answer for what felt like minutes, as though he was pondering on his answer. “Well, this past festival he asked to be the Master’s fag. I don’t believe they’re close, but it hasn’t been for a lack of trying on Christian’s part.”
The angel felt dispirited upon listening to that answer. While it was obvious that Uriel was hiding something he knew about the boy, he seemed mostly truthful in his cluelessness regarding Christian’s true intentions.
“He doesn’t feel human,” Michael revealed finally, leaving Uriel yet again reeling with his honesty. Another truth unprompted from him and he might send the other to an early Sleep. “I have the feeling… that he might be a demon.”
Uriel’s eyes widened. “What…?”
Michael rolled his eyes. Like Uriel hadn’t caught up on that ages ago or anything. “Three demons going after the Elector wasn’t enough, it seems.” He laughs, because of course it happened. There were four dukes of hell, if he remembered correctly. Why not have all of them try to have their own piece on the chessboard?
Well, no bother. He would find out who the fourth demon was. It’s not like he didn’t have all the time in the world or anything, not now that he wasn’t fading.
As he rose from the pew and turned to the door, he heard someone knocking. Michael locked his eyes with Uriel’s, raising an eyebrow in a silent ask if the other was expecting other students that needed help with their scripture.
Uriel seemed equally baffled as him.
Michael walked towards the door, feeling oddly out of place. Like something bad would happen if he did. It was a sensation so uncomfortable, and Michael only remembers feeling it when he would gaze upon Gabriel’s tomb and stare at it for hours upon hours before removing the lid of the coffin.
Dread.
But why?
His question was quickly answered, because on the other side of the door stood Sean Christian.
He smiled upon seeing Michael’s visage. It was only slightly askew.
Michael forced another smile in the mortal body he snatched.
“Oh, it’s you, the cute underclassmate. Were you looking for Reverend Cecil?”
The boy’s eyes darkened, one of his hands holding Michael’s wrist with unnatural strength.
By that point, Michael thought that perhaps he was hallucinating, but he swore that through the light he saw something like a chain tattooed in his hand. It was out as soon as it appeared.
What he said next turned Michael’s mortal blood cold:
“Old man, it’s so nice to see you alive and breathing.”