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It was a warm night. Gabriel and Beelzebub had gone off together, the angels and the demons had returned to their own offices, and Glaucos and Kokabiel were walking to the Ritz to celebrate the end of their little adventure.
Their favorite table was free as if by miracle and the food and drink were as delicious as ever. After eating dessert[1], they returned to the bookshop, with Kokabiel hanging on his demon's arm.
After entering, Glaucos changed his raincoat for his indoor jacket and hung the hat he had been wearing to hide his feathers on the coat rack[2].
“Can I tempt you to drink a little wine?” Glaucos asked. Kokabiel nodded. Asking was mere courtesy. He would never say no to good wine and in fact he was already a little drunk.
They got comfortable together on the sofa in the back room and Glaucos served two generous glasses. The angel leaned back on the cushions and raised his legs onto Glaucos's lap.
“My dear…” murmured the demon with that warning tone he uses every time Kokabiel show his affection impudently. He shrugged his shoulders and gave him a sarcastic smile. Glaucos sighed but didn’t comment anything else.
They enjoyed the drink while chatting. The more Kokabiel drank, the more his cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink and his golden freckles shone like the stars he had created.
“I’ve just remembered,” said Glaucos, “why did Metatron want to talk to you?”
“He wanted to offer me a job. Now that Gabriel is gone, they have a free vacancy,” answered Kokabiel.
“That's great.”
Glaucos finished his third glass of wine in one sip and refilled it. He hoped his smile looked more sincere than he felt it. He noticed his cheeks were tight and new treacherous feathers appeared behind his ears.
“I told them no.”
“You what?” mumbled Glaucos, dropping his cup on a pile of books[3]. “Why did you do that?”
The demon didn't want to lose Kokabiel, but he couldn't understand how he would let an opportunity like that pass.
“I don't want to go back to them, birdie.” The angel lowered his legs to the floor and sat up. “What's surprising about it? You have rejected the new job they offered you in Hell too.”
“Because it's Hell. You know well that I don't want to be with them,” Glaucos explained.
“Well, I don't want to be with Heaven either,” Kokabiel answered pouting. “I want to be here, with you. On Earth. I like the existence we have built here in London. And I like being on our side, birdie,” he said, taking the demon's hand between his.
“I like it too,” Glaucos answered, giving their intertwined hands a little squeeze.
“There is nothing more to talk about,” Kokabiel said, returning to his demon's lap.
Glaucos also relaxed beside him and softened the tense posture he usually adopted. After another drink, he even dared to place his hand on the angel's leg. Kokabiel smiled, he was in his favorite place in the world.
***
The days passed peacefully the same way they had before Gabriel interrupted their lives. Kokabiel took care of his plants and Glaucos took care of his books[4]. Sometimes they went out to the theater, to the park or to eat. At night, Kokabiel curled up on the sofa and Glaucos watched over him while he read.
But nothing lasts forever, not even happy endings.
A few days after their dinner at the Ritz, Metatron appeared at the bookshop while Kokabiel was out[5]. When the bell rang, Glaucos left the back room with the intention of throwing out anyone who had dared to enter his bookshop. He certainly didn't expect to see Kokabiel's boss.
“Good afternoon, can I come in?” Metatron asked.
Surely, Kokabiel’d have recommended telling him to fuck off[6], but there was no universe in which Glaucos would dare reject the Voice of God, so the demon nodded and stepped aside to let him enter.
“And Kokabiel?”
“I'm sorry, he's not here right now,” Glaucos replied. “You can wait for it, if you want. I don't think it will take too long. I can make tea in the meantime.”
“I don't think my colleagues will approve I accepted a cup of tea from the enemy,” Metatron replicated, laughing. Glaucos forced himself to smile. “It seems like you two… tell each other everything.” Glaucos didn’t miss the reproachful tone, but he tried not to take it as a personal offense. “So, I'm not wrong in assuming that he told you about the job offer, right?”
“I… Kokabiel told me that he had rejected it.”
“I hoped he’d have changed his mind after talking to you,” Metatron admitted kindly. Glaucos opened and closed his mouth several times, without understanding what exactly the angel could be referring to. “Are you not interested in the offer either?”
“Me? What does it have to do with me?”
Metatron smiled. The demon didn’t know how to interpret the gesture. Condescension? Pity? Mischief? In any case, he didn't like it too much. Glaucos wished strongly that Kokabiel would appear at that moment.
“We thought of restoring your Grace. Kokabiel would be the Supreme Archangel and you would be his second in command. I thought you'd be interested in running Heaven together, after all the headaches you've given both sides in the last years.”
Rage bubbled under Glaucos's skin. How could Kokabiel keep quiet about such important information? He knew how much Glaucos hated his side, for Heaven’s sake!
“Well, it seems like you didn't know anything...” Metatron commented. “It would be better then that I come back another day, after you two have talked.”
The demon nodded, deep in thought. Metatron walked to the exit and Glaucos held the door for him to let him out.
“I hope for good news the next time I come,” Metatron said. “Nothing would make us happier in Heaven than to readmit one of ours. You already know how much we like to forgive Up."
Finally, Metatron went and Glaucos was left alone in the shop. After spending a few minutes completely blocked and motionless at the entrance to the bookshop, the demon decided to make himself some tea to calm his nerves.
It didn't help much. As soon as he finished it, Glaucos began to stroll around the bookshop, while he smoothed out the wrinkles in his jacket and vest and tried to control the feathers that kept growing.
The bell rang and Glaucos stopped his walk in his tracks and turned quickly towards the door. Kokabiel entered with a huge plant, whose name Glaucos didn’t know.
“They had abandoned her, isn't she a beauty?” Kokabiel said as soon as he entered. “I'm going to leave her upstairs with the others.”
“We need to talk.”
Kokabiel's face appeared behind the plant. His round glasses balanced dangerously on the tip of his nose.
“That sounds very serious, birdie.” Glaucos nodded with his head down and his hands behind his back to hide his fingers playing nervously. Kokabiel placed the pot on the floor being careful not to stain it. He sat up and adjusted his glasses. “Okay, I hear you.”
Glaucos took a breath before speaking.
“Metatron has been here. You told me that he offered you Gabriel's position, but you didn't… you didn't tell me that he also offered to restore my angelic status.”
“We don’t need them, we’re better than that. We’re on our own side! You said you liked our side!”
“But we can be together as equals! As angels!”
“We’re already equals! We always have been! Everything you think about being inferior for being a demon isn’t true!” Kokabiel exclaimed, coming to his side with a couple of strides.
“Why didn't you tell me? Why did you reject them?” Glaucos shouted. “Why have you hidden it from me? Tell me!”
Unintentionally, the demon's nails sharpened, and his fluffy curly hair became a mess of feathers.
“Glaucos, I…” Kokabiel began, bringing his hands closer to Glaucos's slowly so as not to scare him. “I don't want to go back to them. The last few years have been the best years of my entire existence.” Kokabiel took his demon's hands between his. “No Heaven, no Hell! They are toxic! We are better off without them! You and me! As it has always been!”
“You've always wanted us to be together and this is the only way,” Glaucos tried to argue.
“I want to be with you just as you are, birdie.”
“You can't love me while I'm a demon," Glaucos said, releasing Kokabiel's grip and taking a step back. “By definition a demon is unworthy of love, remember?”
The air in the bookshop was beginning to feel dense. His heart was beating rampant and if he weren't a demon without needing to breathe, he would be afraid of fainting on the spot.
Glaucos noticed how tears were gathering in his eyes. He clenched his fists tightly and turned his back on Kokabiel. He wasn't going to be weak in front of him, a demon couldn't be weak.
“Nothing of it. I love you already, birdie!” Kokabiel shouted with frustration and a broken voice. The time stopped for a moment. The angel had never been afraid to show his affection with actions, but he had never expressed it with words. “Why can't you see yourself the way I see you?”
“Why can't you understand that I want to go back?” Glaucos asked, plucking up courage to face him again. “You shouldn't have made that decision for me!”
“You're the one who doesn't understand anything! They kicked you out once! What makes you think they won't do it again when you're no longer useful to them? It's Heaven! It's just another trick!”
“But this time I'll be good! In all these years I have been able to redeem my sins! I am no longer the same... angel or demon. I know this time I can stay there!”
“You were never a bad angel, birdie.” Kokabiel's words caught the demon by surprise and his furious features softened.
“What do you mean?”
In six thousand years of knowing each other, Glaucos and Kokabiel had never talked about Glaucos' time as an angel or about his fall. Kokabiel thought it was a matter of courtesy, but in reality, the demon hardly remembered anything, not even the reason for his fall.
“It's hard to remember,” Glaucos confessed. “It hurts.”
“I was there when you fell. I almost fell for asking some questions, but you stopped me, and I redeemed myself on time. Gabriel didn't like it and made you fall. It wasn't She, birdie, it was the angels. They made you fall for showing mercy! They did it once and they will do it again.”
Silence invaded the room while Glaucos was thinking about the new information. Kokabiel flopped down on the couch exhausted, making a silent prayer to God for his demon to come to his senses.
“It’ll be different, this time it’ll be,” Glaucos said. The angel pinched the bridge of his nose in despair. “You can't decide this for me. You know well that I lost my Grace but not my faith. I want to go back to Her. And I want to be better.”
“I'm not going to be part of this.” Kokabiel got up from the couch and headed for the exit.
“But, Kokabiel—!”
“No! I’m not giving you the key to your own destruction and stand by and watch it happen,” Kokabiel said with his hand on the doorknob. “I wish you good luck, but don’t count on me.”
“I can never forgive you for this.” Tears escaped the demon’s eyes uncontrollably, but this time he didn’t care.
“Don’t bother. I didn’t want your forgiveness, I wanted my love to be enough for you.”
Kokabiel turned the knob and go the bookshop, leaving behind only his angelic essence and the new plant he had taken in Glaucos' bookshop. Their bookshop. Their home.
[1] Although Kokabiel didn’t like to eat, he always ordered some dessert so that Glaucos could eat two. If he were a demon, it would be considered a temptation to gluttony, but since he was an angel he preferred to consider it an act of love.
[2] Glaucos was usually able to keep his demonic features under control, but with the stress of the past few days, feathers had appeared all over his head at an alarming rate.
[3] Don’t worry about the books, they are well trained and know they are not allowed to get wet.
[4] The only thing Glaucos liked about being a demon was being an absolute bastard to his clients. He could be as mean as he wanted, and no one could blame him.
[5] He was probably doing some of his most angelic actions, like taking down the Internet so people can spend more time with their loved ones in the real world.
[6] To be an angel, Kokabiel was so foul-mouthed.