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Humans should suffer as they died.
It's not that Angel was cruel, it was just fate. One day, every life approaches their end, pain just happened to be a crucial aspect of death. If not for the immediate pang, the soft agony of blood loss and body horror would find their way to their souls eventually. Having devils around made the world all the more gore-like. Had you managed to outlive expectations and not get gruesomely murdered by one, your luck would far exceed the average person's.
Aki was no different.
From the moment they met Angel knew he would die. That was for sure; it was a fact. No creature, human or not, can truly live forever. But the Devil knew humans, and he knew their lifespan better than anyone else. So it really was quite a surprise when it didn’t take much for him to get attached.
Aki’s house was loud and chaotic, with Denji and Power wreaking havoc everywhere they went, but it was cozy. It was a home. He could see it in the little details scattered about the place: the dishes drying up, the smell of food still lingering, the soft snores coming from the other room. Everything was intimate and warm and so much like love, something he never thought he’d be able to feel. Power’s cat meowed at his side, and frustrated Angel looked away. There was nothing more he wanted to do right now than cuddle with a cat under the golden hour sun and kiss his human lazily.
"Angel."
He turned his head to see his lover. He looked so inviting. (God, when did he become soft?) “Hm?”
Aki leaned on the counter and looked down, afraid to face him. His hand held close to the Future Devils's eye, and Angel understood; he knew they wouldn't be able to sleep that night. "He said you'll be the one to kill me."
There was no escaping the hands of death. The future was woven and written.
He was bound to end his lover one day.
It was laughable really; the idea that he would ruin his own happiness and destroy the one good thing in his life, but Angel bit back his hysterics and the will to hug Aki in comfort.
It wasn't the thought of killing Aki that scared him, Angel knew he would die soon anyway with how he wasted his life in devil contracts. It was the thought of being all alone afterwards. With devils, no matter how many times you died, you could always come back. Sure, it wasn't the same thing, but he would still be there, for eternity. The warning was a painful reminder that they never stood a chance of having anything remotely normal. He had almost forgotten Aki would leave him forever once he passed.
The hunter was more than what people call “boyfriend”, he was his partner in every meaning of the word. They were each other’s everything.
That night they talked and talked until they couldn't find the words for each other anymore, laid with aki huddled between blankets so tightly pressed it was virtually impossible for their skin to touch; like always.
The months narrowed down quickly, and with Angel breaking down quietly every time they reached a month mark, it was a suffocating countdown. Every small death building up to the big day they got called out for another mission. Denji and Power had their own business elsewhere. Backup wasn't coming. It was just them, and their assigned group at the moment.
The enemy was far too powerful for them to win. Soon enough, their entire team was taken down (far too easily). And in the midst of the chaos of battle Aki got hurt (far too badly). Angel couldn't say how he let that happen.
Bleeding and panting on the floor amongst the corpses of every other devil hunter, he watched Angel stand in devilish glory, drawing a sword and jumping forward to kill the beast. The fight was over. His partner rushed to his side, trying to reach out but ultimately failing when his body didn't have the means to.
"Aki, are you okay?" He seemed desperate.
Aki knew his death was near. He didn't have any time left anymore, devil contracts or not. Nobody would come. No medical treatment. And it was too much, far too much for him to take; the pain was excruciating. The future devil was right, after all. If he could choose how to die, if he could make his own destiny, he would choose to have Angel's poison touch each lifetime.
"Kiss me" He said.
"It'll kill you."
"I'm already half way there." When Angel didn't answer, Aki chuckled "Do you still think humans ought to die in pain?"
Angel thought. "Yes. All but you"
"Then kiss me"
Someone sobbed. Neither could tell which one it came from anymore. "I can't. I'll lose you"
Aki smiled. It was stupid trying to live in denial anymore, it was now or never. Neither of them could let him die without feeling each other at least once. Neither of them could say no to the temptation anymore. The longing, the touch-starved agony; it needed to come to an end one day. But it was so hard to accept.
Angel leant forward anyway, spilling his tears all over his lover's cheeks.
"It'll be alright" Aki reached a gloved hand to his face. "I love you."
Their lips touched.
Angel didn't know he was capable of feeling this way. It was more than fireworks, more than butterflies in his stomach. It was overstimulating. The entire length of his face that made contact seemed to catch fire in the most pleasurable and painful way he's ever felt. Touch, he found out, felt so good. Touching Aki, felt so good.
If only he wasn't an abomination, if only they had met in a different world where he could touch, and feel, and live, and die, and Aki hadn't wasted his life away for a suicidal mission. If only he was human and devils didn't exist, and they had found each other like in those romance movies everyone seemed to like. A grief’s dream.
He felt the few days Aki had left consume him.
Aki.
He died instantly, blissfully.
Angel threw himself over the empty shell of the only thing worth living for and pressed his cheek against Aki's still warm ones, wailing.
Couldn't he stay here forever?
Stop time and pretend he doesn't feel the lack of a heartbeat he'd come to love, pretend he really was normal and this was just casually cuddling his partner, pretend the wet sensation of their bloods mixing and staining his clothes was all a product of his imagination?
He laid on the sand by his side and wrapped his entire body on Aki's. His legs wrapped around the hunter's, his head rubbed all over his face and neck, peppering wet kisses everywhere he could in forgiveness.
Despite lacking the light, Aki's eyes never looked more alive. Selfishly, he told himself he could stay until the warmth left. He needed to. He could fake this, say his lover was alive and well for a bit.
Because how could he ever raise his head and face the truth?
Devils can't love. Devils want humans to feel pain, get hurt and to cry out in fear.
Devils don't sob until they can't see anymore at the sight of a content smile on a dead man's face.
Angel wished he was human too.
He wished he was human too, so he could've gone with him.