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The Angel Devil has lived for a long time now. He’s lived all by himself, doing whatever Makima asked in the quickest, most efficient possible ways, after he’s finished procrastinating as long as can, so he could go back to the corner of Division 4 he calls his home to sulk. His only real interaction has been with Makima and Makima alone for as long as he can remember.
Then he’s assigned to work with the Chainsaw Devil, or the boy it inhabits, the Blood Fiend, and the human in charge of them, Aki. They are obnoxious, and Aki is especially infuriating, as he is insistent that Angel changes his behavior and gets his work done as soon as it's assigned. They do not get along.
But at the same time, there’s something about him and his little pets, Denji and Power, that draws him in. They’re alluring. He wants to spend his time around them, for some reason. He follows Aki around, even if he spends most of that time just trying to piss him off, going with him to train, going with him to kill devils even when they aren’t strictly to go together.
Aki does not like him. He very explicitly tells him they do not get along and Aki can’t even pretend they do. He very clearly considers him a lazy, filthy devil, which, he isn’t exactly wrong about. Angel helps with the whole Bomb Devil thing, which is a terrible chore, and all is fine until the Typhoon Devil shows up.
Small and light as he is, with those big parachutes he calls wings, it sweeps him off the street instantaneously, and there’s nothing he can do about it. But then, inexplicably, he feels a hand grasp his.
The Angel Devil has felt many hands in his life, but never has soft, supple human skin made contact with his willingly. No one has ever reached out to him unless they were actively dying before him and believed he was a real Angel sent to save them. When he looks up, it’s Aki that’s holding him, a terrified expression on his face, his other hand connected to a light pole which is very quickly being ripped from the ground.
Just moments before Angel had told him to let go, he was ready to die, so why in Hell would Aki, a human who knows what Angel’s power is, who hates him as much as any other Devil, willingly take his hand.
He then wraps Angel into his arms in an embrace, something Angel has never before felt, in any context.
When he asks, Aki gives him a stupid answer that he does not like, nor believe. He could feel Aki’s life draining through his fingertips, what little of it he’d had left. It’s infuriating and confusing, but that touch… that touch, firm and willful and intentional, meant to save a life, not take one, had been so lovely. He wants more, though he knows he can never have it.
As repayment, whether Aki wants it or not, Angel does not bring him with to kill Reze, even though Makima asks.
Later, the Darkness Devil takes them to Hell. He feels the same as when Typhoon was pulling him in, resigned. They will surely all die in Hell, especially as their arms are collected from them, leaving them with nothing to fight with. So he does not try. The others do, he watches them, but he does not help. He can’t find the will.
Thankfully, he does not have to, because Makima decides that she will save them. She retrieves them all from Hell, which Angel does not know how he feels about. Sometimes he wishes he could just be dead, even if he knows he will only be alive in Hell until he dies there and is sent back up to the human’s world.
They cannot reattach his arms, and for some reason neither can he. No amount of blood restores him, which makes him useless.
Aki has gotten one arm back, though. Only one, which is mighty unfortunate, but also much luckier than Angel.
They will not kill Aki for being useless, but they absolutely will kill Angel. As resigned as he is to both life and death, there’s an instinctual fire in his belly that urges him to fight and live. His mind may be content to die but his soul is not.
So when Aki comes to him and warns him that his inability will not for long be tolerated, Angel wants to beg him. Ask him for help, to save him, filthy devil or not. But he does not do that because Aki would not care and Angel does not have the will to plead.
He doesn’t have to, though, because after only a couple of days Aki comes to him- still in his hospital room in Division 4 because he cannot open the door- and tells him that he will be joining him in his quest to protect Denji. He leaves no room for debate at all, and no amount of digging his feet into the floor will keep Aki from dragging him away, so, as he is one to do, Angel takes the easiest route and simply allows himself to be led to Aki’s awaiting car.
Aki has to open the car door, help him get in, buckle his seatbelt, and close the door for Angel, which is terribly humiliating.
At the same time, though, it’s rather nice to be looked after. To be cared for.
They go to a hotel, where they must hide Angel’s wings and halo, which is far from comfortable. He catches his reflection in the car window after Aki helps him out and whatever he has in place of a heart pangs at the sight because he looks human. He looks like any other regular person that gets to touch and feel and love, not a Devil that kills just for the crime of being touched. Being felt. Being seen.
Power and Denji share a bed, which Aki tells him is normal and they do frequently, especially after falling into Hell, (he learns that the fiend has nightmares,) leaving Aki and Angel to share a bed.
Angel tells Aki that he will not sleep on the floor, and that Aki must instead so that they do not accidentally touch, but he doesn’t mean it. If Aki asked, he would acquiesce easily and rest on the floor or in the plush chair against the wall. He wants Aki to tell him it’s fine, they can sleep in the same bed like real people do, he wants to be fought for, just a little.
Aki stares at him, a little exasperated, and replies that he will not sleep on the floor either, and since Angel is a Devil who doesn’t technically need to sleep anyway, he should find somewhere else to sleep.
In response, Angel flops onto the bed and refuses to rise again. Aki rolls his eyes but gives in, thankfully. Once Power and Denji are settled in, snoring, and Aki has had his shower and changed clothes, a luxury not afforded to the armless Angel, he slides under the covers.
“You stay on top,” he mumbles. “Then we can’t touch.” It isn’t real, but it is care. Aki cares to let Angel have his way and he cares to make sure it’s safe. For his own preservation, yes, but he could physically force Angel off the bed and he doesn’t.
“Fine,” Angel grumbles, though he couldn’t get under the blankets if he wanted to.
Aki rolls onto his right, and Angel shuffles onto his left. There, still safely separated by the fabric, their backs meet.
It’s not skin, it’s barely even warm, but it’s contact. It’s real.
“Thank you for saving me,” Angel thinks, but does not say. He will never say it. But he is grateful, distantly. He is happy to have someone who cares, after all this time.