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At first, it was feathers left on his pillow. Sleek black feathers from crows, fluffy grey tufts from pigeons, vermillion feathers from god knows where, a fake feather most likely from a dreamcatcher, a feather with white changing to black from a bird he didn't know. A pure white one from a place Aki knew all too well. Many pure white ones followed in its wake.
Those pure white feathers were the only thing Aki allowed himself to address. Makima had assigned him to this devil without warning and Aki didn’t need to waste time with a warning. Before it could be required, the job would be done and he could move on to his main goal, so close that he could taste the all too familiar bitter metallic tang and devour the gun barrel of that filthy devil. For that, Aki could not afford to lose focus. Every time this vile demon would get on his nerves, he would force his anger to fade into the white of his wings. Its wings.
Devils aren’t people, he snapped at his slip-up.
Especially this one that hated humans and made Aki’s job ten times more difficult, giving him an aneurysm on top of Power and Denji’s daily antics. Power and Denji were also related to Devils in one way or another, and Aki used to hate them. Then he saw Denji getting excited over a piece of toast slathered with a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, jam and butter, proclaiming it was better than what appeared in his dreams.
Aki frowned, “You’re supposed to put one of them at a time.” The sight and utter desecration of toast offended his senses. He thought Denji would ignore Aki, continuing to scarf down the piece. Instead, Denji paused, mouth open to drool half chewed bits of bread down the sides and holding the toast abomination in midair, letting the liquid drip onto the table. “Oh? It's the first time I had some. No idea one of ‘em was ‘nough.”
Aki knew Denji was a devil-human hybrid. He had not a shred of sympathy for anyone. If Aki were to die, he would probably walk over his body, not realising that it was Aki he had stepped over. Aki knew that, better than anyone else. Yet, at that moment, Denji wasn’t merely Makima’s devil dog toy. Denji was his partner to look out for. After that, the refrigerator always had toast and different types of jam.
Alright, maybe one Devil won some undeserved sympathy from him.
Then Power won him over. Aki saw her gently lift Nyako into her lap rather than tearing its throat or being even a little rough while play fighting. He didn't ever think Power and gentle were words that could be said in the same sentence. All he ever saw was Power pulling Nyako onto her chest and drowning it in her arms, Nyako purring the entire time. Aki gave in, letting go of some complaints about cleaning blood off the floors and flushing the toilet. She was capable of some softness and that was enough.
That’s it, though. No more exceptions. Those two were a handful already.
At least, that is what Aki led himself to believe. The more Devils he developed sympathy for, the weaker his will would get in pursuing the Gun Devil. Devils were tools to achieve his goal, not things to be cared for. Devils did not care for anyone, wrecking destruction in their wake. Aki had experienced this destruction, first hand.
Then why did those wings and bright red hair leave such an impression on him?
It began with a mere touch through a handkerchief. He knew this Devil had the ability to steal his meagre life span away. It did not deter him and he stared straight at it, trying not to dwell on how devastated Aki would feel if he stole someone’s lifespan against his own wishes. He couldn’t imagine how crushing the weight of such a power might be.
He shook those thoughts away. Focusing on those blinding white wings would remind Aki that this was a Devil he had to work with, a means to an end, nothing more nothing less. A Devil who felt no remorse towards the life he, no, it took. No more sympathies for the Devil. There wasn’t much time left for Aki anyways.
The objective Makima gave was supposed to be simple. Win over the Angel Devil.
If Aki thought working with Denji and Power was a nuisance, the Angel Devil was another beast altogether. He refused to work at all. Getting him to walk to the mission required coaxing. Denji and Power were bloodthirsty demons ready for to pick a fight, at least.
The Angel Devil would collapse after walking two feet towards work, forget fighting. Aki would have offered to carry him if it didn't cost him his lifespan. Or his resolve to treat him like a Devil. When sighing, commanding, and cursing him to move did not work, Aki tossed a hard candy sweet in his direction which worked wonders. The Angel Devil would follow him anywhere if it meant there was a sweet involved.
Aki was convinced all these Devils were overgrown children that he was forced to babysit.
Said overgrown bird baby was leaving all sorts of trinkets in his bed like Nyakko left dead rats in Power's shoes which she proceeded to gobble on delight. He kept all those feathers in a jar next to his desk. Aki tried to pretend he didn’t look forward to the next one, or that there wasn’t a rush of excitement going through his body when he guessed which animal or object it belonged to. Those feathers were always waiting for him when he came back from a mission not involved with the Angel Devil.
Aki levelled up his strategy to win over the Angel Devil, instead of getting won over by him. The old bait and switch. Be the one jerking him around than being the one getting jerked around by two demonic adult babies.
The sweets were working fine as motivation. They cost less and with a fist full of them, the Angel Devil was at his command and walking as far as required, slaying whichever creature Aki asked him to.
There was no need for Aki to buy him an ice cream after a long and tiring mission. The look of delight on his face made it worth it, the way he didn’t carefully lick the melting liquid from the side of the cone. He went ahead and chomped large chunks of it, as if it wasn’t cold enough to give him a brain freeze. Aki cringed from imagining the numbing freeze he would have got if he bit at the ice cream that way.
In minutes, the ice cream was devoured. Angel did not have any inclination to move from the bench.
“So much for being a devil hater.”
Aki silently agreed with him. Yeah, so much for making no more exceptions.
Then, there were large, impossibly fluffy blankets left at his pillow. They were oversized for his bed, spilling over the sides and falling onto the floor in a cosy puddle that Aki would love to sink inside. Those days with the blankets, warmth enveloped him and he would rest better, the pain from his sore muscles disappearing.
This was against the rules. Aki could easily report Angel. Make sure he never sees him again. Make sure he never gets those feathers and blankets again.
Even though Angel was a rotten sweet tooth, Aki treated him to ramen.
For a change of pace, not because he was curious to see Angel's reaction.
He couldn't be taken into the store for obvious reasons, so he brought it in a disposable bowl and Angel ate it in the parking lot. Aki couldn't take his eyes off Angel slurping up the noodles and drinking the broth. He didn't use chopsticks, directly emptying the bowl in his wide open, waiting mouth. Aki pushed down the smile creeping up on his lips.
Angel was so endearing, he might just explode. Aki’s safety was in danger, he needed to stop feeding him. Then he felt devastated to deprive himself of the sight of Angel guzzling down his food, of course also because he would be depriving a starving Angel of food.
Once Angel was done, he leaned back against the wall, clutching his stomach, the broth drying on his chin and the corners of his lips. He was breathing heavily once all of it had been consumed. He was eating without taking any breaks as if the food might evaporate before his eyes if he didn’t consume it quickly enough.
Before Aki could stop and take a moment to realise what he was doing, he took a tissue to wipe his face. Angel looked up at him with wide glassy eyes, sleepy with an onsetting food coma.
“Thanks Aki.”
The next time, Angel showed up at his window. No one was home.
Denji and Power had gone to train with Kishibe and Aki took that opportunity to bleach the shit out of every surface, then proceeded to collapse on the couch. His back was about to settle into the pillow when a knocking on his glass window interrupted him, a very tired, sluggish Angel making him forget his tiredness.
Without thinking twice, Aki let Angel inside.
Angel entered, shrivelling up on the couch without hesitation, as if he was coming back to his own home.
“I lost all my blankets, so I came here.”
“How convenient that I have extras.”
Angel gave him a small smile, borrowing further to sink inside the couch.
Aki could justify buying Angel food. He could still explain away the jar of feathers and blankets. What he couldn’t admit, without dying of embarrassment, was the shark blanket he brought, the eyes on the hood staring at him from the pile of other normal blankets in his closet overflowing with them.
He never actually planned to give it to Angel, letting it be his secret, never to see the light of day. Angel reminded him of a baby shark when he chomped on the ice cream and emptied his ramen into a wide open mouth. Angel loved ridiculously fluffy blankets so why not?
He did not want the answer to that question.
Despite his better judgement, he decided to let his desire to see Angel in a shark blanket take over. He could feel heat crawl up his neck when he tossed the cloth at Angel, smacking him in the face.
“What was that for?” He said, voice coming muffled from being buried underneath the blue mound.
Aki sat next to him, scoffing to hide his anxiety at seeing him wear it. With seemingly great effort, Angel tried to wear it, instead tangling it around his body. Aki should have known this would be too complicated for Angel to figure out, but he was delighted at watching him struggle to put his arms and legs into the arm and leg holes.
Once Aki was done soaking up this bonus sight of Angel putting his arm through the opposite armhole, getting out of that tangle, then moving on to placing the tail end on his head so it seemed like a large blue tube was on his head, he laughed. Angel pouted at him.
“Why is this the spare blanket? Did you really have no other ones?”
Angel was referring to the blankets he had been leaving for Aki. Aki poked at Angel’s sides through the tangled mess to urge him to get up. With the loudest groan, Angel got up and let Aki guide him out of the contraption.
Once he was free, Aki turned it, right side out. More so to buy time to still his racing heart at how close he was to Angel and how Angel didn't understand Aki’s true intentions, genuinely puzzled at why such a complex blanket would exist.
“You put it on like clothes. Arms through the fins and legs through the tail.”
Aki carefully let Angel slide his arms in. The fins were too big, Angel’s arms only filling it halfway.
Aki couldn’t find a smaller one since it came only as ‘onesize.’ Though, being entirely honest he would have bought the largest one even if it came in different sizes.
Aki’s concern about Angel’s wings fitting through the blanket dissolved since it was large enough to fit three Angels inside it. He held up the tube that was its tail and let Angel step into it, before carefully sliding it on, placing the hood on his head. The hood completely obscured his eyes and Aki had to stifle any sound that would escape his mouth, in case it was a squeal.
Angel was beyond adorable. The hood contained a shark fin on its head and teeth at the top edge, with Angel’s red hair poking out from the sides. Once wrapped up, Angel immediately flopped back onto the couch.
“Why do you have a blanket that looks like Beam?”
“This one looks better than him.”
“Alright, let’s call him Bloom to avoid confusion.”
He looked so cosy swaddled up in them, Aki just watched him sink into the corner of the couch, Bloom the shark’s fin poking at the top of his head, its teeth covering Angel's forehead. Aki planned to watch him sleep till he got tired and eventually dragged himself to bed.
In a rare moment, Angel stirred, wriggling on the couch since both his legs were trapped inside the tail, pulling the hood back a bit to look at Aki through half-lidded eyes.
“The sofa hurts my back.”
With no further explanation, he moved to curl up against Aki. He rested the side of his head on his chest and pulled himself onto his lap, completely burying into him. Aki had no idea if Angel would be able to feel the heat through the thick blanket but at this point his entire face must be bright red.
“Did it come in different colours?”
Aki thought about whether he could touch Angel’s hair. It was dead so there shouldn’t be a problem right?
“Pink, grey and blue.”
“You should get the rest of them. You can never have enough spare blankets.”
He hummed quietly, wrapping his arms around Angel and resting his chin on the top of his head. He took the risk and twirled a stray red strand between his fingers, cherishing its softness. Aki was definitely cosy like this, Angel fast asleep, his breath ghosting the top of his arm, draped around him like a weighted blanket.