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I Was Made for Lovin’ You
“Bee!” Came the booming call from the other room. “Bee!!” Beelzebub heard zir name repeated from the other side of the flat. “Bee, come here, I HAVE to show you this!”
“Gabriel, I’m right here,” Beelzebub said, emerging from the kitchenette in the one-bedroom flat in central London where the pair had been staying since leaving their respective “sides”. Unbelievably, it had been relatively easy to just walk away. There were angels and demons on either side clamoring to be the new leaders of their respective former homes. With so many in line to take zir and Gabriel’s places, it wasn’t like Satan himself was chasing Beelzebub down to resume zir place as “Lord of the Flies”. And it was the same for Heaven, right? God could just put Michael or Uriel in Gabriel’s place, right? No big deal.
“Oh!” Gabriel said, smiling when he saw Beelzebub. “Well hello,” he said, gesturing to the bright, shining golden-brown-and-ivory object on his lap.
Beelzebub recognized it immediately as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top’s, 1959 Les Paul guitar. Pearly Gates, it was called, Beelzebub recalled with a smirk. Oh, the irony. “Gabriel,” Beelzebub started, “What is that?”
“It’s called,” Gabriel paused for dramatic effect, “A guitar.” Gabriel beamed his 10,000-watt smile at Beelzebub, evidently proud of himself. He flourished a hand over it. “Let me show you what it does.” Gabriel gestured for Beelzebub to take a seat.
Beelzebub humored Gabriel and decided there was no need to spoil his fun and tell him ze already knew what a guitar was, as well as that specific guitar. Where it had come from was the largest part of the mystery, and had piqued Beelzebub’s interest. Therefore, ze took a seat, fully reclining into the red plush sofa, one knee crossed confidently over the other. “Show me, Gabriel,” ze waved a hand to encourage the former Archangel to continue.
Another mega-watt smile, and Gabriel began, slamming his fingers across the strings, his fingers placed on the fret board ready to melt some faces. “Hold on, babe.” Another mystery. Evidently, Gabriel knew how to play the guitar. Didn’t the angels all just play harps and horns up in Heaven? Beelzebub didn’t know, but in another flourish to humor zir partner, Beelzebub made a show of gripping the seat cushion below them and gritting zir teeth in a wide smile, as if preparing to go to war. Suddenly, noise exploded from the guitar, a deep rhythm sounded as Gabriel began to sing in multiple voices. There were back up instrumentalists and additional vocalists. The mystery continued.
“Tonight,” Gabriel began, “I want to give it all to you. In the darkness, there’s so much I want to do,” Gabriel’s miraculous mastery of the guitar was, in fact, mind-melting, Beelzebub observed. “And tonight, I want to lay it at your feet. ‘Cause girl, I was made for you.” Beelzebub made a face like sucking on a lemon. Girl? Gabriel immediately corrected without missing a beat, “And Bee, you were made for me.”
Beelzebub could hardly take a moment to fully appreciate what was happening in front of them before the Earth-shattering noice doubled in decibels in time for the chorus. “I was made for lovin’ you baby, you were made for lovin’ me. And I can’t get enough of you, baby, can you get enough of me?!” Gabriel’s multiple voices and invisible instrumentalists, all clearly part of some minor miracle, blasted through the rest of the song. Beelzebub stared, eyes wide, gripping the cushion with real intensity, zir finger tips blanching from the pressure.
As the music faded away, Beelzebub’s ears ringing, Gabriel flashed zir another smile. Beelzebub hesitated and smiled back, well- as if a smile and a grimace had a baby. “Well!” Gabriel shouted, “What did you think?!”
Beelzebub began to laugh, “What in all Hell was that?” Ze exploded into laughter, wiping a tear from one eye.
“That was,” Gabriel said, “‘I Was Made for Loving You’ by the human band, Kiss.” He said proudly. “Did you love it?”
“I mean, I did, yeah,” Beelzebub said, settling down from zir laughter. “It was amazing, really, truly, it was. It’s the wrong guitar for the song, though.”
Gabriel cocked his head, “There’s a right guitar?”
“I guess not technically, but that song is by Kiss and that guitar belonged to Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. It’s not a big deal, it was mind-blowing.” Beelzebub said, standing from zir perch on the sofa and making zir way across the small, but richly decorated flat, to stand beside Gabriel and plant a kiss on his cheek. “You did all that for me?”
“I wanted to impress you,” Gabriel said, “How do you know all this about guitars and human music?”
“I’m a demon, Gabe. Rock and roll was invented by our side. I know all about guitars and music. There’s a ton more where that came from. But, where did you get that particular guitar? Billy Gibbons isn’t dead, and he certainly won’t be one of ours, he’s like, a super nice guy,” Beelzebub’s lemon-face was back.
“I have precisely no idea what you are talking about, but I like watching you talk, and hearing the words that you say,” Gabriel blushed and straightened his tie. He was impeccably dressed as always. Though, that might not be for too terribly much longer, Beelzebub mused with a smirk.
“Well, perhaps you’ll like these then,” ze purred, “use your hands to play it again, but let’s use me as the guitar. Shred me and make me scream.”
Gabriel’s brow furrowed, “I am not sure I know what you…” He trailed off as Beelzebub removed the guitar from his lap and set it reverently on the sofa. Ze perched on Gabriel’s lap, “Use your imagination,” ze said, taking each of Gabriel’s broad hands and placing them on zir body. “Don’t tell me I’ll have to teach you a lesson?” Zir eyes flashed and Gabriel appeared to get the message.
“Yes, those have been my favorite words you’ve said all day, Bee.” Gabriel said, tightening his grip on zir. “Hold on, babe.”
“And,” Beelzebub said, “not that I really care, but I am curious. Where did you get the guitar?”
“An Angel has his ways,” Gabriel said, nonchalantly, “But I’m going to return it.”
“You nicked it, didn’t you,” Beelzebub snorted. “Gabriel, I’d say that’s rather something my side would do.”
Gabriel smiled wickedly, “There are no sides, anymore.” He snapped his finger and the guitar vanished. “Won’t be needing that since I got the new model.” Gabriel raised his eyebrows, suggestively. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes…”