Aoba felt the gentle hands on his chin and he readily complied to looking Kuro in the eyes. The fallen angel terrible as he was at hiding his emotions, showed a moment of surprise when Kuro agreed. He tried to quell the sudden giddy feeling he had afterwards as well, but the gentle flutter of his wings betrayed him. 

“I…Of course Kuro.” There was a brief pause when Kuro kissed him, but instead of his usual shy blush he smiled a little brighter. Aoba watched Kuro drift off to clean his hair before falling into his own train of thought and looking out into the trees a good distance away. [i]I feel a lot...happier than usual? I mean of course I’m happy Kuro’s okay and that his brother didn’t decide to kill me, but that’s not it… I doubt that my depressive episodes are magically cured… I don’t know, this is different somehow?[/i] 

Aoba tried to put an image with the emotion because happiness didn’t feel like the right word for it. While he wasn’t upset about it, he figured that being more perceptive about his surroundings and his ownself would be helpful- and probably allow him to live a lot longer. It was a back and forth with him when it came to this kind of thing. At times, Aoba would just give in to his blushing fits and jumpy nature, but he was trying to learn how to relax a bit more and think things through.

Oddly enough, as he thought about what he could only call ‘bubbling giddiness’ the first clear image that came to mind was when he and Kuro were out in the town and that group of girls were whispering and giggling as they passed. It was obvious they were ogling him, but at the time Aoba didn’t think much of it. [i]’What did Kuro say about...pheromones? Hormones? Hm.’[/i] While he was a little naive more often than he cared to admit, it didn’t take that much thought to put two and two together. [i]’I wouldn’t call it a crush. I believe we’re passed that, but those girls definitely had heart eyes for Kuro. Which, seems like a stretch since their attractions were only physical-’[/i]

When it clicked, Aoba’s wings ruffled just enough to express the ‘epiphany’ he had. The fallen angel was prudish and he was well aware of that and it showed every time a sneaky Dani would mess with him. It was never a big deal around other angels whether they were or not and with Aoba living such a quiet life, he never thought about it in detail. So realizing he was acting on subtle physical desires Aoba wasn’t exactly sure how to react. It wasn’t… Well, it ‘wrong’ for him to do so and he was already stripped from his place in heaven along with his grace so there wasn’t much to lose- 

[i]’I can’t believe I’m taking this so lightly!?’[/i] 

Maybe this was him being completely rational, while most times he overreacted. It was hard to say but slowly he started to pull his attention back to reality. He hadn’t realized he had been absentmindedly cleaning off until he ran fingers through his hair and got soap in his face. He quickly wiped it off before it could get into his eyes. The easily flustered angel exhaled and floated towards Kuro again, this time ever so cutely with one wing pulled up in front of him. 

“Kuroo~?” He, for some reason felt compelled to know answers to rather unspecific questions. He wanted to take the opportunity to do so while he wasn’t so flustered, knowing that sooner or later he’d fall into his usual ways. When he got Kuro’s attention, he realized he didn’t actually know what he wanted to ask him, and his expression turned into a small frown towards his reflection. “Hm… I’m not quite sure what I’m doing most of the time and I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the process, but I do know that uh, I really like being here with you.” Aoba’s face had softened into a more thoughtful expression, not quite meeting Kuro’s eyes while he spoke. “I don’t exactly know where I’m going with this either or why I started for that matter- but um, despite the circumstances,” He tried to refrain from shuddering at the thought of the angels punishing Kuro, “I’m really glad I was assigned to care for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Fenrir softened as he watched and listened to Aoba. Despite it all, he was really growing as an angel- fallen or not. Somehow, he managed to be a better angel than most of the ones Fenrir had known and for someone who’s grace was taken from him, he was still so pure. [i]’He desreved so much better…’[/i]

Listening to Aoba’s last statement made his heart drop as it reminded him that it was his fault that Aoba had gotten into this mess in the first place. If only he had been a better mentor… If only he would have listened. The thoughts made him groan and place his hand on the back of his neck. “It’s too late for that. The mistake has been made...” It made him wonder just how much the fallen angel even care about him. Fenrir hadn’t given him the time of day until the fiasco began to happen and now the doctor was all of a sudden so deeply invested in watching over Aoba’s life. He was probably the last person Aoba would think was watching over him, if he even believed anyone was watching.

 Before his thoughts could carry on, he continued watching.

~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s a nice feeling being...being appreciated? Being with someone- uh, someone and their very...excitable family? M’not to sure what to call it, but it’s nice. And I don’t think I say it too often- at least not with the feeling Dani’s gonna make faces or something.” He could feel the creeping blush threatening to color his cheeks, but he carried on. “Hm, I’m not actually sure where I was going with this,” He finally looked at Kuro and gave a shy laugh followed by a soft sigh. He stared at Kuro for a few moments before mentally accepting that he was impossibly enamored with the demon in front of him and there was probably no going back. And to solidify that thought, he leaned up and kissed him. His wing had drifted back behind him, allowing Aoba to move closer and let the kiss linger a little longer than the kiss Kuro gave a few minutes ago. The warm, tingly sensation in his body made him pull away and put a bit of distance between the two, albeit he didn’t move fast to get away. 

With a near breathless noise, not caused by the kiss, but Aoba’s own floundering he pointed behind him. “I thiiink- I think I’m as clean as I’ll get for the night. I’m going to, um, get out. Grab some clothes, yeah. That sounds like a good idea. It’s getting late anyway and it’s been a long...exciting day.” Aoba’s rambling turned into mutters, similar to the way Homura had rambled about “experimenting with Aoba” the first time they had met. All the while, Aoba was already in motion climbing out of the tub and grabbing a towel, quickly covering his waist. Somewhere in Aoba’s rambling he mentioned something along the lines of he would see Kuro inside when he was done. 

~~~~~~~

Fenrir exhaled with his head in one hand. “And he was doing so well too…” The knock on his door threatened to make him jump out of his skin. In one quick motion, he slipped the mirror into his desk drawer and pulled some paper close to him. “Come in,” He cleared his throat.

“Fenrir sir, I wanted to make sure you were informed about the medical team and a few soldiers being sent out soon.” The medic angel carried on when his higher up gave a questioning look. “We were informed that more demons are starting to appear in a small city where a group of soldiers had been scoping and clearing out. We need to get the injured out and send back up.” 

Fenrir contemplated the information before giving a nod. He would have to leave the mirror alone for a few hours to figure out the situation and make preparations as they were needed. He stood to follow the medic angel, starting to ask a few more questions like where the town was and how many were injured and for how long.