Work Text:
It struck Aki as odd that devils got sick days.
That’s what he’d been told, anyways, when he arrived at work that morning. The Angel Devil is sick, their secretary informed him. Not sure with what. He’ll be out a few days…kind of hush hush, the information came straight from the top. Weird, right? She had leaned in close to Aki while speaking the last part, the sharp glint in her eyes betraying her gossipmongering intentions. Even if he wanted to, there was nothing to share. Aki was as clueless as the rest of them.
In their time working together, Angel had never presented with anything so mild as a sniffle. Angel was certainly lazy, but he was also strong, healthy and, despite his flaws, reliable. After they met, Aki never thought ‘reliable’ would be a word he’d use to describe Angel given his devilish nature but with time, he’d more than proved himself. A few life-saving interventions on each other’s behalf made for a strong partnership. Not that he’d admit it to his human colleagues, but he might even go so far as to call Angel a friend, a confidant. Denji’s infectiously positive attitude had really worn him down.
For the duration of Angel’s unspecified illness, Makima paired him with Denji; they were familiar, of course, and patrols still needed to happen. Denji wasn’t particularly thrilled about being dragged into ‘the old bullshit’ as he had described it, but he patrolled with Aki with minimal griping nonetheless. He had to admit that he was getting a little Denji-ed out; working with the kid all day, commuting home with him, and then spending his entire evening in the same apartment had him grasping for privacy. He cherished the early mornings when Denji nor Power were awake and he could enjoy the early morning solitude on his balcony in peace. They knew to leave him alone when he sat out there.
It surprised him, then, when Denji interrupted his early morning meditations by sliding the screen door open.
His eyes looked crusted over and his hair was tousled as if he’d just rolled out of bed. “Uhhh, sorry, you got a phone call.” A yawn punctuated his sentence. “It’s Makima.”
Aki stood up. He’d missed a call from Makima of all people sitting out there? God damn it. “Makima? Why?”
Denji shrugged. “I’unno, she just talked to me a little and then asked me to get you.” A light blush climbed Denji’s neck and cheeks as he spoke.
Nothing urgent, then, if she had the time to speak to Denji. Aki entered back into the apartment with a brisk pace, Denji sidestepping out of the way as Aki picked up the phone.
“Miss Makima.”
“Aki,” her voice rang in his ear, “I was a little surprised that Denji picked up. Are you alright?”
Aki felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Yes. Just enjoying the morning outside. Is something wrong?”
“Insomuch that there is a problem? Yes. Is it a serious problem? Not really.” There was a pause. “But it’s one that you are well equipped to deal with.”
“I’m listening,” Aki said.
“I need you to return to HQ. North wing.” Aki cocked an eyebrow. Hunters weren’t typically allowed in the north wing. Makima continued and said, “I do realize that this is your day off; as such, you’ll be receiving vacation and hazard pay. I truly appreciate you doing this for me.”
‘Hazard pay?’ Aki mouthed to himself. A flitting thought, something small in the back of his brain clawed at him. ‘Ask questions. You didn’t agree. Ask questions.’
But that was a stupid thought; of course he wanted to help Makima. Why wouldn’t he?
He nodded to no one in particular. “Alright. Should I arrive soon?”
“It would be preferable, but if you’re in the middle of something, please don’t feel the need to rush. No one is in danger.”
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Fantastic.” Aki could hear her smile. “I’ll inform the front guards. Your badge won’t activate in the north wing, so please do check in with them when you arrive. Thank you, Aki. You’re a great asset. I’ll ensure the proper payment is posted during your next pay period.”
The call disconnected. There went his day off. It was a bit frustrating, but this seemed like a unique situation – a chance to prove himself. He’d sleep in tomorrow and call it even.
“So, what was that about? Aren’t you off today?” Denji looked at him, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Extenuating circumstances. I need to go in.” He walked towards his bedroom.
“Ok, yeah, I got that much from listening. Why, though?”
“I wasn’t given all the details so it’s likely confidential,” Aki said, standing in the doorway. Denji looked confused so he added, “You can’t discuss confidential information over the phone. The line could be wiretapped.”
“Fuck if I know what that means.” He walked over to the fridge and opened it up, sniffing the air. “You know how long you’re gonna be gone for? We’re low on food.”
They were not low on food; they were low on food that Aki had already prepared and portioned out. Aki rolled his eyes and grabbed his wallet from the top of his dresser, removing a 1000 yen note. He handed it to Denji and said, “Don’t kill yourselves. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Aww, sick!” Denji grabbed the money and shoved it into the soft pocket of his pajama pants.
“Share it with Power.”
Denji responded with a grunt as he continued to poke around the fridge. “Yeah, yeah.”
***
A man of his word, Aki arrived at the front door of Public Safety HQ in 56 minutes. By the time he buzzed himself in and navigated to the north wing, it’d been 60. He’d walked this hall many times, but no further than the large, white door on the left side of the hall reinforced on all sides with metal. Two guards flanked it; Aki had never seen it unguarded.
Admittedly, he was curious. Public Safety did enough messed up shit publicly – what could be so secretive that they deemed it necessary to hide it from their own employees? He approached the guards and pulled out his identification. “Hayakawa Aki. Miss Makima asked me to assist in the north wing.”
The two guards shared a look between them before the female one grabbed his badge and scrutinized it, checking the front and back with equal measure. She looked to her partner. “This badge is legitimate and he matches the description provided.”
The male guard nodded. “Alright.” He turned to Aki and beckoned with his hand. “Come with me.”
They entered. It felt…off, Aki thought. Very different from the Public Safety he was used to. White walls, sheet vinyl; it seemed more like a hospital than a government office. Each door they passed was shut and bolted from the exterior, and despite Aki’s best attempts at determining what lie behind them, there were no windows to peer through.
The noises, however: that was not something he was expecting. Screeching, howling, clawing at doors. It was an overwhelming atmosphere, and he felt the distinct sense of not belonging as the hairs on his neck raised. He glanced at the guard. “What am I doing here, exactly?” Aki asked.
“Assisting with devil care,” he said, disinterested. “It should go without saying that whatever you see or do in here will remain confidential.”
Right. That cleared up nothing but the source of the noises. Aki was a devil hunter; he’d made the reasonable assumption that he’d been called in to deal with devils of some kind. But ‘devil care’; what did that entail? Care was such an interesting word to describe managing devils and Aki could not determine if the term was meant to be sardonic or not.
“Yes, of course,” Aki said. “What will this care entail?”
The guard sighed as if he’d prefer to do anything but have this conversation. “You’re the Angel Devil’s partner, correct?”
Aki’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Why?”
“Then you’re the most well equipped to deal with this…situation,” he said with a clipped voice.
The ambiguity made Aki want to punch something. He gritted his teeth. “Which is?”
They came to a sudden stop in front of a door and the guard placed his hand on the knob. “Talk to him yourself. He’s inside.”
Aki felt as frustrated with the guard as the guard clearly was with him, so Aki gave him a withering glare and a perfunctory ‘Thanks’ before entering the room and closing the door behind him. He heard a click from the outside. Locked in, presumably: nothing new when dealing with devils. He looked around the room.
Like the exterior hall, it was sterile. The only source of light that existed sat directly above him on the ceiling and it had been dimmed, making it difficult to see much beyond his immediate environment. Aki ran his hands over the wall before finding the light dimmer and sliding it up. Light flooded the room and, for better or worse, Aki got a clearer picture.
Next to him, a medical trolley with uneaten food and bottles of water. In front of him, a bed, one in which Angel laid with a wing covering his face. A high-pitched whine emerged from under the wing and echoed through the room as the light reached full brightness. Angel had burrowed the rest of himself within multiple layers of bedding and Aki couldn’t see much of him. Must be some illness to kick Angel down this hard.
Aki approached, his footsteps echoing. “I was sent to check on you. Are you ok?”
A few of Angel’s feathers shifted so that his left eye peeked out. “Aki...?” His voice sounded exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days.
“Yeah. The hell’s going on?” He stopped at the foot of the bed and looked down at Angel. His wing had moved a little further back and, despite squinting in the newfound light, Angel’s pupils were blown, almost entirely obscuring the red of his irises. Pink colored his cheeks and sweat plastered his vermillion hair to his head and neck. Perhaps he was dehydrated? It’s not like Aki was a doctor.
One of Angel’s arms emerged from under the blanket pile and he used it to help prop himself up. “Aki,” he said, an almost desperate, unbelieving quality to his wavering voice.
Alright, perhaps he didn’t need doctor credentials to realize that whatever illness Angel was presenting with was very much not normal. He sat on the edge of the bed as Angel’s nostrils flared. “Yes. It’s me. What’s happening, why are you –,”
His speech came to an abrupt halt. He smelled – something. Something musky but with an underlying level of sweetness. He racked his brain to attempt to source the smell but his brain – it wasn’t working right. He couldn’t think straight. Every inch of his body screamed at him to get closer to the source of this scent, inhale and devour it and fuck and – what the hell was he thinking? He brought a hand up to cover his mouth and nose while his stomach lurched.
“Angel,” Aki said, his voice muffled by his hand, “You need to explain to me what the fuck is going on. Now.”
Angel tilted his head at him, his eyes glancing to the side in thought. “Oh. They didn’t tell you…man…that sucks for me.” Every word Angel spoke dripped with molasses. “I’m in heat.”
Aki didn’t have a goddamn clue what that meant and he didn’t attempt to figure it out, too focused on his breathing and the feeling of heat growing in his groin. “What. Does that mean.”
There was a lingering pause as Angel sat up further and took a deep, shaky breath. “Figures they’d leave you in the dark. I’ll…keep it simple.” He locked gazes with Aki. “I need you to fuck me.”
Aki didn’t think he’d heard that correctly. “What?”
Angel leaned forward and Aki saw that Angel’s upper body was covered in sturdy, black fabric that clung to him. His hands were gloved, moving restlessly. It was no wonder that Angel was as sweaty as he was, flushed and hot and –
With great difficulty, Aki cut that train of thought.
“I know you heard me,” Angel said. He pushed the bedding away from his upper body until it pooled around his waist. “Fuck me… I can tell you want to. You wouldn’t have reacted like that to my pheromones if you didn’t.”
Pheromones, heat. The now-erection straining against the front of his pants, visible to anyone with the means to see it. Aki sat at the intersection of confusion and arousal, staring at nothing as he subconsciously palmed at his cock. He whipped his hand away as soon as he noticed and said, “I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Angel rasped, his breath ghosting against Aki’s face. Aki jumped; he’d been so focused on restraining himself that he hadn’t noticed Angel shift closer. “The place where angel, devil, and human meet…it’s complicated. I don’t work the same way as you. But what I do know,” Angel said, one hand trailing up Aki’s clothed leg, “Is that no one has ever reacted so strongly and so quickly to my heat. You must really like me.”
Angel’s teasing words, the scent in the room; all of it was wearing Aki’s defenses down and he stared forward at the wall as he felt Angel’s gloved hand moving closer to his cock. His own thoughts were unfamiliar, a chorus of ‘Take him, he’s yours, you’ve always wanted him’ playing on repeat in his mind. “I’ll die if I touch you,” Aki said simply, trying to quiet the raging thoughts in his head.
Angel scoffed and gestured to his own covered body. “Aw, where’s your sense of fun? I knew you were coming so I prepared. Put a condom and your gloves on and we’ll be fine.” Angel’s fingers dug into Aki’s thighs as he whispered into his ear. “Please…I’ve been hurting for days. I can usually get by fine on my own, but spending so much time with you…” he trailed off, “Complicated things.”
‘Complicated things?’ Whatever was left of Aki’s will snapped and he had to suppress a goddamn growl. Angel’s scent fully caressed his mind, and he wouldn’t, couldn’t, back out now. He was thankful that he had enough sense of mind to put on the pair of gloves he kept in his pockets and tuck the bottom of his sleeves into them. He threw his suit jacket to the floor and grabbed Angel’s jaw between his thumb and forefinger. “Fine. But we’re doing it my way.” Grabbing him felt instinctual. It felt right.
Angel’s breath stuttered as he relaxed into Aki’s hold. “Okay. Please.”
With trembling hands, Angel grabbed a condom that he had laid on the side of the bed and handed it to Aki. Aki took it and put it in his pocket. No need for that, yet; if Aki was going to do this, he was going to enjoy it as fully as he could.
“Not yet.” He kicked his shoes off as he climbed up onto the bed and pushed Angel back. There was no resistance and Angel hit the pillow with a gasp as he canted his hips up. Angel’s chest heaved and Aki slipped a gloved hand under the waistband of Angel’s thick, legging-like bottoms.
“There’s a hole sewn into the crotch,” Angel murmured. “Easy access.”
Aki stopped and let his hand rest just above where he felt the heat of Angel’s length. “Maybe I want them off.” He grabbed the waistband with his other hand and pulled them down in one fell swoop. He looked Angel over, his own pupils now completely blown and a hungry look in his eyes.
It was a bit different than Aki had imagined. Angel had a cock, yes; Aki pumped it for good measure, Angel mewling as he did. But there was more than that. Something glistened from behind Angel’s cock and Aki pulled Angel up by the thighs to get a closer look. A thin slit, leaking fluids onto the bedsheets. Aki wondered how Angel managed to even wear pants in his current state.
His interest much have shown on his face as Angel said, his voice rough with lust, “Different than you were expecting?”
Aki nodded but continued to look at Angel’s slit. He pushed a teasing finger up against it and Angel gasped. “Yeah. Not a bad thing, though.”
“R-right,” Angel said, “It opens up when I’m in heat or, like, really horny. Can you...?” He made a lewd gesture with his hands and looked at Aki pleadingly, his features flushed.
“Can I what?” A smug smile pulled at the corner of his lips. Like he’d do it without making Angel ask. “Tell me, Angel.”
“Damn it, Aki,” he whined. His wings fluttered in agitation, but Angel caved, nevertheless. “Please…please put your fingers in me.”
Slowly, perhaps too slowly for Angel, Aki sunk one finger in past his folds. Angel dug his heels into Aki’s back and clenched down onto the intrusion. Looking up at Angel, he pressed another in, a little more ruthless this time, relishing the image of Angel’s back arching and head pressing back into the pillows. The rough fabric of the gloves seemed to be working in his favor as Angel ground down onto him, biting his lip in concentration.
With his other hand, he took Angel’s cock and worked it until Angel quivered and came, his walls clamping against the fingers of one hand and come painting his glove on the other. Aki withdrew his fingers and wiped them on his pants. Whatever newfound instincts he’d found told him that Angel was very much not done; if anything, the scent grew stronger and what remained of Aki’s rational resolve was long gone.
Angel grunted, still laying on his back. “That only took the edge off.”
“Yeah, I can tell.” He stepped off the bed and undid the buttons on his slacks. He pulled his cock out, tugging a few times before taking the condom out of his pocket and putting it on; a bit uncomfortable with his pants still on, but it’d have to do. Angel’s eyes brightened and he sat up, his head resting against the back of the bed. “Come here,” Aki said. He patted the edge of the bed.
Angel did so without complaint, slinking forward until he faced the standing Aki, his feet dangling off the edge of the bed. His eyes were glazed, heavy with arousal, and he looked up at Aki like he held the world. Aki’s cock pulsed and, after grasping it in one hand, he pressed it up to Angel’s lips. Their height difference – while at times inconvenient – worked to his advantage here. Angel hesitated for a moment, locking eyes with him as if to confirm ‘You know if this goes wrong you could die and I’d need to deal with that, right?’
Yeah. He knew. But at this point, he didn’t think he could muster up the energy to care about anything other than fucking Angel’s face and he didn’t think Angel could, either. Angel’s lips parted enough for Aki to sink into the wet heat of his mouth, giving a few cursory thrusts that allowed Angel to adjust before he drove his cock further into him. One hand tangled into Angel’s hair, grasping the red strands and pulling and pushing as he pleased. With each controlled movement, Angel’s moans rumbled against him, sending sweet shocks of pleasure up his spine.
He caressed Angel’s cheek with his other hand and pushed a few messy locks of hair, wet with sweat, behind his ear. Angel looked up at him with heavily lidded eyes and, without missing a beat, swallowed. Aki stuttered out a moan and dug his fist deeper into Angel’s hair. “You’re…pretty good at this.”
Without warning, Angel popped off and said in a scratchy voice, lips swollen around the words, “Pretty good? That’s it?”
“Show me more and maybe I’ll move you up a ranking.” It seemed that Angel wished to retort, but Aki filled his mouth again before he could. Angel grunted and grabbed at Aki’s waist, pulling him closer as he hollowed his cheeks and sucked. All this, Aki noted, without breaking eye contact; Angel stared at him with wild eyes, almost as if to prove to himself that he could, that he could please Aki better than anyone else. Time to test it.
Angel’s eyes widened as Aki pounded deep into his throat. His shaking fingers dug into the meat of Aki’s thigh. Despite that, Angel maintained his gaze, peering at him as overstimulated tears formed at the corners of his eyes. Aki took his head and forced it forward, holding it in place as the tip of Angel’s nose grazed his slacks. For the first time, Angel gagged and closed his eyes; the tightness Aki felt around his length was like a vice. He pulled out and left Angel gasping for breath. It wasn’t his goal to come yet, not yet. Angel needed something else.
“Fuck,” Aki panted, attempting to regain composure. “I’ll change the grade to excellent.”
“Gee, thanks.” Angel coughed. Despite the sarcasm, a glimmer of pride shone in his eyes as he looked up at Aki through wet lashes.
They looked at each other for only a moment before Angel turned around so that he rested on all fours, ass up in the air with his wings resting on the bed, facing Aki. Presenting. The word came to him so easily and despite never fucking somebody like this before, he knew what to do. He climbed back onto the bed and raised himself to his knees, stroking his cock with some of Angel’s remaining saliva before resting behind Angel’s bare ass.
He attempted to press another two fingers into Angel, to make sure he was good and ready, but as he pressed his fingers up to Angel’s entrance, he snarled. “Put it in already, Aki! Fuck!”
Something about Angel’s tone displeased him. He seized the back of Angel’s neck and pushed him down until his face was buried into the soft sheets of the bed. Angel’s wings fluttered in a futile attempt to stabilize himself, but Aki leaned over him and added, “Thought we were doing this my way?”
Angel whimpered and spouted something unintelligible. Aki loosened his grasp the slightest amount. “I can leave if you don’t want that. Plenty of shit needs doing at the office, I’m sure.” A feeble lie, but Aki doubted that Angel had the sense of mind to contest it.
“No!” Angel’s head whipped around to the extent that it could, given Aki’s hold on him. “I’ll be good. Please.”
“I sure hope so. I’m doing you a pretty big favor, you know. Helping a devil like this.” He removed his hand from Angel’s neck and used the fingers to press into Angel’s heat, slick dripping around him as he probed. Though Aki no longer held him in place, Angel seemed to neither notice nor care as one of his cheeks continued to press into the sheets. Angel trembled and mindlessly ground his cock down into the air as Aki whispered into his ear, gazing over Angel’s precious submission, “You should be grateful.”
He removed his fingers and fucked into Angel with one strong, steady movement and Angel lurched forward with a strangled cry of “Yes! Fuck!”. Angel all but sobbed as Aki punched the air out of him with another slam against him.
Every inch of Aki craved this on an instinctual level – the slide of their bodies, the rhythmic slapping of Angel’s ass against his pants. It was mindless, indulgent: too much and not enough at the same time. Aki wished more than anything to touch Angel’s skin, to hold him and kiss him and make him his, and he made a frustrated noise as he processed that impossibility. He hiked Angel’s shirt up and ran a gloved hand over his back, sweat sticking to the leather and pulling gently against Angel’s skin as he moaned into the bedding with each piercing thrust.
Aki wanted to see his face. He grabbed a fistful of hair at the base of Angel’s skull and pulled it back, a pleasured yelp escaping from Angel as Aki held him until his neck was taut. “Feels so good,” Angel moaned while glancing back at him, his eyes half rolled back into his skull. Aki gave a particularly strong thrust and Angel strained against Aki with a whimper, incapable of moving. There was nowhere else to go; Aki ensured that. Angel was well and truly his.
Angel opened and closed his mouth, seemingly incapable of finding words as Aki pounded into him. “I waited…days. Thinking about this. Thinking about you fucking me in every way imaginable.”
“Yeah?” Aki asked. He reached under the fabric of Angel’s hiked up shirt and pinched a nipple, Angel gasping in return. “Why did you wait so long? I could have been making a mess of you days ago.”
“Think I was delirious,” he murmured. “Must have said your name a thousand times. Guess the staff figured out I wasn’t leaving ‘til you came here since they finally called you in, huh?”
Aki couldn’t find words. He had Angel, his Angel, admitting right before his eyes that he’d been begging for him, for his cock and his body for days – and he’d been denied? That clawing feeling crept from his subconscious once more, pushing thoughts to the forefront of his mind: ‘Show them he’s yours. Claim him.’
His lips twitched. Looking down at Angel’s pale lower back, his neck: Aki wanted to bite, to claim, to leave no question of who Angel belonged to. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he surveyed their surroundings. With one hand steadying Angel, he used the other to pick up a corner of the bedsheet, turning it over in his hands. Risky. This would be very risky. This material was thin, and if Aki punctured it the wrong way? Say goodbye to a few more months of his meager lifespan.
But…
It was a risk he was willing to take. Nostrils flaring, he took the sheet in his hands and blanketed it over Angel’s upper back and neck. Angel looked back at him, questioning at first, but one look at Aki’s intense, lingering gaze told him everything he needed to know. Angel returned forward and bowed his head down in invitation. Aki felt Angel clench around him as he said, voice light and dazed, “Do it. Fuck, please.”
Aki hunched over Angel until his form entirely covered Angel’s own, his cock settling deep within him. Angel’s body was so much smaller; Aki knew that, of course, but it was never as noticeable as now with Angel’s entire body curled beneath him. When he pinned Angel’s wrists with his hands, he felt Angel squirm. He then turned his attention to Angel’s neck, pale and slender and trembling as Aki breathed against it. Angel shivered; whether it was a physical response to his breathing or anticipation of what was to come, Aki was unsure.
He felt like a stupid beast as saliva pooled at the corners of his mouth, but he’d never felt such an intense drive to do anything. He ensured the corner of the sheet was secure and then sunk his teeth into the flesh of Angel’s neck.
Angel screamed, a mix of pleasure and pain and everything unspoken between them. Angel quivered and came, and Aki held him in place for a few moments, ensuring that Angel didn’t collapse and that his claim was secure. The constriction of Angel’s walls around him, however, was nigh unbearable and Aki withdrew his teeth. Blood stained the sheet, he noted, and a deeply rooted sense of satisfaction rose within him. His hips stuttered forward for three more sharp thrusts before he came with a gasp.
Angel crumpled onto the bed into a pile of his own spend and Aki followed suit, his length softening inside of Angel as time passed. With some hesitation, he pulled out and tied off the condom, buttoning his pants back up. Angel continued to lie face down on the bed while muttering something to himself.
“Can’t hear you,” Aki said. He debated on whether to take off his gloves, now covered in spit and slick, before opting to keep them on to rub the small of Angel’s back. Some semblance of himself seemed to be returning. He felt a little less crazed, a little more like himself.
Angel rolled onto his side, wincing. “Just saying ‘Damn, fuck’. Stuff like that.”
Aki lied back on the bed and patted the spot next to him. He felt…exhausted. Like he could take a twelve-hour nap and it still wouldn’t be enough to clear whatever feelings invaded his brain. Angel wiggled up next to him and buried himself under an unsoiled blanket.
“Knocked the language right out of you, huh?” He loosened a piece of Angel’s hair that sweat had stuck under his chin.
“Guess so,” Angel said. He laid his head on Aki’s chest. “Thanks…for helping.”
“Wasn’t what I was expecting to do today,” he said, which may have perhaps been the understatement of his life. “I’m more embarrassed than anything.”
Angel tilted his head as he glanced at Aki. “Why? It’s what I needed.”
“It’s not...” Aki chose his words carefully, “I wasn’t completely myself. I would have preferred if we were going to do,” he gestured vaguely with his hands, “This, that we’d have talked about it first. Something about your – what did you call them, pheromones? Drove me insane.”
“Yeah, that’ll do it. I think it’s some vestigial aspect of the angel part of me – it gets all messed up with the devil part too, you know? Inherently contradictory. The wires get crossed. I think it comes from, uh,” he paused, thinking, “The human idea of how angels breed?”
Aki looked at him, horrified. “Please tell me you can’t –”
Angel shook his head. “No. Like I said, vestigial. Like the human tailbone or appendix, my heats are functionally useless and exist purely to irritate me.”
Aki sighed with relief. “God, now is one of those times where I really wish I hadn’t stopped smoking.”
A feather fell onto Aki’s lap as Angel wrapped a wing around him. “It’s never too late to run to an even earlier grave.”
“I’ll pass.” He turned Angel’s head until he could see the bitemark on his neck. Aki winced; the blood had dried, but a nasty looking purple had already risen to the surface around the shape of his teeth. “I fucked your neck up pretty bad. Sorry. You’re going to need to wear a scarf or drink blood.”
“It’s fine. I kind of like it.” He ran a finger down Aki’s arm. “I like that I can make humans fall over me like that. Besides,” he paused, looking at Aki’s face, “Are we really gonna pretend that this didn’t happen? I dunno about you, but I don’t think I can.”
That was…Aki hadn’t considered that yet. Soon, they were going to leave this room with the knowledge of what occurred here. “No,” Aki said. “I don’t think I can pretend. Better question is if anyone else should know.”
“They already do,” Angel said, matter of fact. “Who called you to come here? Makima, Kishibe? Whoever the hell runs this wing? It was probably Makima though, right? She knows how to work you. It matters more to them that I perform as a functioning asset,” he spat, “Than that a human fucks me, a devil, for whatever that’s worth.”
Aki inhaled a sharp breath. He hated to admit it, but Angel was right. “The whole division will know what happened, then.”
“Is that bad?” Angel looked at him, his eyebrows furrowed.
“It makes things complicated. I’m supposed to kill your kind and I just what, bent you over and fucked you like an animal? I’m supposed to explain that to someone like Kobeni? Power?” He shuddered at the thought.
Angel laughed, a pleasant, chiming noise that Aki realized he hadn’t heard before. “Why explain anything to them? Let them assume what they want. You’re the leader of your squad. Be a man and tell them to shut up if you don’t want them to talk about it.” He clapped Aki on the chest near his heart.
“Ugh. I’ll deal with that later. We should probably get cleaned up and leave?”
Angel blinked and buried another laugh. “Oh, you think we’re done? Aki, we’ll be here for at least another day. I can already feel another round coming on.”
Aki stared at him. “You’re not serious.”
“Why would I lie?” He brushed a finger against Aki’s cheek. “Ride the wave. It’s coming whether you want it to or not.”
“Well,” Aki said, carding a hand through Angel’s hair, “I guess there are worse ways to spend a weekend.”