He waited until the food was served and the waitress had left before beginning. "I probably should have mentioned to you about them earlier. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be an issue, seeing how new you are... I’m sorry."

The boy looked at him, mouth full of food, and made some noises that Syo could only assume was a sentence, but had no idea what he was trying to say. After a pause he continued.

"Angels are sent to protect the souls we’re supposed to retrieve. Like demons and shinigami[1], they travel in pairs. It’s true they can’t hurt anything, even demons; they’re only allowed to use their powers for good."

Swallowing his food, Mikimaro confirmed, "so they can’t attack us when we go after a soul?"

"Well, not exactly," the other started. "If they need to, in order to protect the target or themselves, they can. But only then. They can’t attack at random.  For example, when you were going to take the soul from Takagi, Arai was able to stop you, but the second time he tried, you had stopped your attack, so he wasn't supposed to.  He could have, technically, gotten in trouble for the second strike."

"MMMmm. I get it!" He smiled cheerfully.

A gentle smile in return. "Good."

"So what’s going on between you and that other guy?"

It was so sudden, took Syo by surprise. His heart fluttered as an image of the angel came to his mind. "Kato-kun..."

"Hmmm?" the shorter demon giggled mischievously. "So you do know him!?"

"It’s...it’s a long story." He sighed when the other continued to just smile and nod, apparently not listening or caring about the excuse. "Fine...." He took a sip of the tea that had been sitting untouched in front of him. It was going cold.

"I met Yuusuke Kato on my first mission, back when I was only third class. He was very different than anyone I’d ever met before; he was rambunctious and quite high-spirited. It annoyed me at first, the way he was so laid back. I thought ‘how could this idiot ever make it out of basic training?’

I saw him several times, on different missions...and somehow things slowly began to change. After all the fighting, I began to see him differently. He wasn’t just a goof off, he took his job seriously, he just didn’t let things get to him easily. He was easy-going and confident, traits I never had. I admired that. And he, too, once said he enjoyed going up against me...that my intelligence was the only thing that could stand a chance against his physical strength." He paused in his recollection to give a wistful smile. "And he was right; we were always wonderfully matched. We soon grew a great respect for each other...and it wasn’t long before I realized I had feelings for an angel...."

The small imp’s eyes grew huge. "Demons and angels can fall in love!?!"

"No..." the other’s face darkened. Eyes became hooded. "No they can’t."

"It got in the way of my work. I failed several missions then, because I couldn’t stand to fight him. I got clumsy. Careless. Too busy looking at him to get what I needed to get. My partner at the time had to cover for me a lot.

I took to watching him outside of missions. I’d find him every time he visited Earth and study him from afar. Until one day...he found me. I don’t know if he’d always known I was there, or just sensed it then, but he was out of my sight for a second, and the next thing I knew his hand was on my shoulder." He stopped for a second to collect his thoughts, then continued, "I was scared at first, but we ended up talking...a lot. A real conversation; we talked about anything and everything. Whatever came to mind, we talked about. Long into the night we shared our thoughts, and came to an even greater understanding of one another.

I never wanted that night to end. I wanted to listen to him speak, hear his voice, forever. But it had to, eventually. And when I went to leave he...grabbed my arm." As he spoke he subconsciously demonstrated, gripping his left arm in his right hand, squeezing so hard he almost drew blood. Funny, though, he didn’t feel a thing. For the longest time we stood there, him holding my arm, just looking into each other’s eyes. Finally he just said ‘see ya around’ and released me as he vanished....

But we didn’t...."

Having long since stopped eating his food, Mikimaro looked softly at his friend, feeling the blue-eyed demon’s anguish. "Nakamoto-kun...."

"Arai found me the next day; they were partners even then. He said he knew we had been together the night before...and he also knew Kato-kun had feelings for me, and that it was interfering. He warned me that I’d better not see him anymore, or he’d get orders to deal with me permanently. And I knew he was serious.

So after that I took a desk job. I needed to avoid any chance of meeting him. To settle my heart and purge myself of the feelings I had for him. I knew even seeing him would make that impossible, so I stayed where he couldn’t go.

It was some time later when I finally achieved first class status, and agreed to take on your training. Once missions came up, I figured they wouldn’t put a third-class demon on a case that would have a chance of seeing first-class angels, so I thought it would be ok. That I’d be safe.

...I guess I was wrong...today was the first time I’ve seen him in 500 years...."

A sniffling brought the dark-haired demon out of his reverie. Tears were in the smaller youth’s golden eyes. "That..." sniffle, "that’s so sad!" He burst into tears.

Syo smiled softly at his partner. "That’s in the past, Shimura-kun. Don’t worry about it."

***************

Sitting each with backs to opposite sides of a large oak tree, two angels had been in companionable silence for a time. But something had to be cleared up.

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

Yuusuke was rather not surprised at the question. Though expecting it, he still couldn’t give a real answer. "I...I don’t know. I thought I’d never see him again...."

"Well you had better not. There’s no place for romance in this existence. No room for that kind of distraction."

"I know that." There was silence for a moment, then added "...you heartless bastard."

***************

"I have to share a room with you!?!"

Two voices rang out in unison, as though they’d rehearsed the exclamation. One golden-eyed demon and one silver-eyed angel glared at each other as they stood where they met outside their dorm room door.

The two fumed silently to themselves as they entered the room and began unpacking their things. Each muttered and cursed under their breath while throwing stuff into drawers and on their desks. They didn’t speak to each other until, backing up to make their beds, they bumped into one another.

"Watch where you’re going!"

"You were on my side!"

"No, you were on my side!"

Mikimaro ran over to his desk, grabbed a black magic marker, and, having no qualms about writing on school property, drew a thick line right down the center of the room, ceiling and all. "This is my side!" he pointed to the floor on his half of the room, "and that’s your side!" pointing to the other’s half. "You’d better not cross this line!"

"You’re the one who’d better not cross onto my side!"

"Why would I want to go on your stupid side!?"

"I swear to God, if you try to attack me in my sleep, I’ll poke your eyes out!"

‘Idiot!’

***************

"Well this is interesting."

"It certainly is."

‘As luck would have it,’ Tougo thought to himself, ‘I’d get stuck rooming with him.’ He was laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His unpacked bags thrown carelessly to the floor. He turned his head slightly to look at the demon’s wing-free back as he sat, rearranging his desk. "Just don’t get in my way."

"I believe," Syo replied without turning around, "that you are the one trying to get in my way."

He looked at the other’s back a moment longer, not arguing since it was basically true, before eventually returning his gaze to the ceiling.

"Che.."

***************

The class looked on as, not one, not two, but four new students shuffled into the room. Each one more different than the one before him. A rather tall black-haired one with a friendly face, a cool-looking one with multi-colored hair that must have been dyed, though it didn’t seem to have the texture of hair that’s been colored, a very short brunet who looked too young to be in high school, and one with glasses and hair so dark it shone blue. Each introduced himself in turn.

"Hey there, Yuusuke Kato at your service!"

"Tougo Arai."

"Mikimaro Shimura! Pleased to meet you!"

"Syo Nakamoto. It’s a pleasure."

They were greeted by the class, then instructed to take any empty seats they could find. Mikimaro immediately sprang forward and hopped into the seat next to Shimon, who gave him a somewhat vexed glance. The boy watched with a smug look as Tougo walked by and took the seat behind him. Syo and Yuusuke also took seats near the blond. They looked at each other upon noticing they sat right next to one another, holding the gaze for a moment before suddenly looking away. A very faint blush covered both their cheeks.

They were now all in position to cover their opponent, their partner, and their target. It was just a matter of who would get to whom first.

to be continued....

notes:

Whee!  'Nother chapter done!  ^^  This one's title is Mikimaro's image song from the Ore-tachi no Sotsugyo album.  I'm pretty sure they meant to call it "Time Capsule" but you know how Engrish is.  ^^  This is one of Miki's better songs; probably my second favorite.

[1] Hurray for obscure 'Yami no Matsui' references!  ^^