Diego’s Dance with Death - 7. Two Brothers Go on a Mission

“I thought you were against anyone testing my aura?” Diego paced around his office after Sablo’s unexpected revelation about his partner finding a match between the auras of Azrael and Diego.

“He says he knew without testing. Apparently, your auras are ‘beautiful as butterflies’ when they’re mixing.”

“Butterflies are a good description…of the feeling I’m getting here.” Diego waved vaguely in the direction of his stomach. “I wish you hadn’t said anything. I’m beginning to understand why Ayil said it was against proper protocol for the test subjects to be told.”

“What do you mean?”

“How can I get to know Azrael slowly and naturally when I’m constantly worrying some interfering cupid will pop up and target us? I don’t want to be forced into a relationship the way you and Theliel were.”

There was nothing Sablo could say, considering his reaction after being hit by that unexpected silver arrow. He and Theo might be happy together now, but it was a rocky start.

“Well, if it’s any comfort, I made Theo promise he wouldn’t tell Ayil about his discovery.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I told him Ayil would probably consider it a breach of protocol since he hadn’t assigned him to do the testing.”

“But Ayil will see Azrael and me next to each other on the mission. If Theo could see it straight away, so will he.”

“Not if I distract him the moment Azrael appears.”

“How are you…no, never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll think of something. If all else fails, I can always puke on him and blame it on sea sickness.”

***

Theliel lounged on the couch and waited for Sablo to return from his mission with Diego. He wasn’t sure why the brothers went on the mission together. As far as he knew, that had never happened before. Maybe he should have asked, especially as Sablo had seemed strangely subdued before he went to meet Diego at GC. Finally, Theo heard the unmistakable ‘pop’, indicating Sablo was home. He quickly stood to see how he was. He found him sitting on their bed, shoulders slumped, his hair dripping wet. “Hey, you’re back.”

“Yeah. I’m back.” Sablo shuddered.

Theo put his hand on Sablo’s shoulder. “Your clothes and hair are damp and you reek of fish.”

When his lover didn’t answer, he asked, “Are you cold? Should I turn on the shower?”

“Please do.”

For a brief moment, Theo considered showering together. Somehow, it felt wrong to suggest this, though. Instead, he waited until the water had a slightly higher temperature than Sablo usually preferred, then he put his own shower gel and shampoo on the small shelf in the corner inside the stall. Sometimes, Sablo used Theliel’s stuff to be surrounded by his scent after a difficult day on a mission.

“Shower is ready.”

Sablo got up sluggishly and went into the bathroom. “Thank you.”

Theliel waited for him to come out. After half an hour, he considered looking in on Sablo, but then the bathroom door opened. Towels around his hips and neck, he sat beside Theliel.

“May I brush your hair?”

Sablo nodded.

Theliel grabbed a fresh towel, wrapped it around his partner’s long ponytail, tightened his hands, and pressed the water out. Then he disentangled the hair carefully, took a brush, and methodically brushed it out. He waited patiently. He knew Sablo would talk when he was ready.

“We were on a refugee boat in the Mediterranean Sea.” Theo continued to brush Sablo’s hair, which was almost dry due to the prolonged combing.

“Diego’s order was to guard a twelve-year-old Syrian boy. In the end, he wasn’t able to save him from death due to previous illness and exposure to the elements. All he could do was ease his passing and hand him over to Azrael. All the while, Ayil stood there and witnessed him doing his job.”

“Ayil? Ayil was there too?”

“He was there as an official observer. It was Diego’s one hundredth special mission, and he’s due an award. Because I couldn’t stand to be passive all the time, I prevented a woman from falling into the ice-cold water. That’s why I got wet, I guess, from overstepping my purpose. To think Diego is doing this kind of mission all the time—it’s unbelievable.”

Theo calmly braided Sablo’s hair and massaged his tense shoulder muscles. “Maybe you should try to sleep.” Without answering, Sablo laid down on his side. Theo positioned himself behind him and placed his hand on Sablo’s stomach, gently rubbing until his lover was asleep.

In the middle of the night Theliel woke up and found Sablo sitting up in bed, “Hey, can’t sleep?”

His partner mumbled something inaudible. Theliel reached out to switch on the bedside lamp. Squinting in the sudden light he could see Sablo, who looked wan and worried.

“What’s the matter?”

“Diego doesn’t want to be shot by your arrows.”

“What?”

“Diego doesn’t want you Cupids to hit him with an arrow. He wants his relationship with Azrael to develop slowly. Naturally, not forced.”

“Oh.”

“He’s going to tell Azrael of the match, so they can both be careful, so no one of you lot can sneak up on them.”

“Us lot.”

Sablo shrugged. “Cupids.”

“You told Diego his and Azrael’s auras match? Something I told you in confidence.”

“We already suspected it. He needs to know so he can watch out for Cupids, so you don’t catch him off guard.”

Theliel jumped from the bed and rubbed his palms along his arms. “Catch him off guard.” Theliel looked intently at Sablo. “Like it happened to you.”

“Exactly.”

“What bothers you the most? That Ayil managed to catch you, a former police officer and Guardian Angel off guard, or that the arrow initiated our relationship?”

“Both.”

“I see.”

“Don’t be like that. Even you have to admit we had huge difficulties at the beginning. If I’d had the choice....” Sablo let the rest of the sentence hover unsaid in the room.

“You would’ve chosen not to be shot.”

“Yeah.” As if he’d only just understood the significance of his words, he hurried to say, “I mean, later, after we would have gotten to know each other more….”

“There would have been a later? You would’ve wanted to get to know me more? A Cupid? One of the flighty boys and girls?”

“Eventually...probably.”

“Hah! Even after all the time we’ve been together, your opinion of us is so low, I don’t know how to put it into words.”

“You’re wrong!”

“Am I? Do you think we do important work?”

“Well, in comparison to a Guardian—”

“Right. Guardians protect humans from harm. Very important stuff. We Cupids, however, only give them the chance to fall in love, or in the case of a green arrow, in lust. Totally trivial.”

“Well, maybe not trivial, but—”

“You’ve never troubled yourself to try to understand what we do, right? That’s why you dismissed one of our most important rules without batting an eye.”

“What most important rule?”

“The person whose aura is to be tested can never learn about that, let alone the result.”

“Tell that to Ariel.”

“Ariel? Your commander? ”

“Yeah, he handed us Ayil’s request to be allowed to test Diego’s aura without sealing it. Naturally, we looked at it.”

“Naturally.”

“It seems he, too, didn’t know about your rule.”

“I don’t believe that. As a commander, he knows about the rules and regulations governing the Centrals.”

“You don’t know the most important rule of my job either!”

“It’s that you prevent events, not enable. You prevent someone from falling down a ladder, but you don’t guide their hand in winning the lottery.”

Sablo stared at Theliel, open-mouthed. “How...?”

“Because you’re important to me. Because I know how much your work means to you. It’s part of what defines you as a person. In contrast, you never deemed it important enough to learn things about my job.”

“That has nothing to do with your importance to me. Why can’t you understand we don’t want to be made to fall in love only because our auras match! It’s a matter of free will.”

“This, again, shows how little you understand. To have matching auras is a necessary prerequisite for falling in love. The acceptance of attraction and the willingness to act on it are simply subsequent conditions for a relationship. Maybe you’ve read too many romances in the past. Being shot by a Cupid’s arrow doesn’t mean you insta-fall in love. The arrows unlock the potential to fall in love, and initiate the process. You still have to make an effort for the relationship to start and to work, hence the ‘huge difficulties’ you mentioned before. Being shot with a red—or in our case silver—arrow doesn’t guarantee people will live happily ever after, either. Something can still go wrong. Obviously.

“Because of your ignorance, you disrupted Diego’s and Azrael’s evaluation process, and in the end endangered their chance of falling in love. I stupidly trusted you and revealed the test result to you. On top, even more stupidly, I agreed to not tell Ayil about my findings. I didn’t do my job properly as I should have because I listened to you.” Theliel grabbed a pair of jeans and a random t-shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“I will go to Ayil. And when I come back, I expect you to have moved in with your brother.”

“Theliel!”

A slammed door was the only reply, and Sablo stood alone in the silent apartment. For several seconds he was too shocked to do anything, his mind blank. Then he jumped into a flurry of actions.

“Shit! Where’s my phone?”

Grabbing it from the bedside table where Theo must have placed it last night, he began shooting off texts.

Please come back I am sorry

We can work it out I love you

“Shit, shit, shit. Pick up the phone.”

Am calling Diego to explain

You dont really want to wake Ayil in the middle of the night do you?

In between frantic texting, he kept ringing his brother and throwing items into an overnight bag. Finally, a groggy grunt greeted his efforts to get hold of Diego.

“It’s me. We’re in deep shit.”

“What! Tell me all.” Diego went from sleepy zombie to full alert, the way he always did in a crisis.

“Have you told Azrael yet? About the matching auras?”

“When would I have had time for that? I went directly home, had a shower and a meal before crashing.”

“Thank Heavens. Theo went ballistic when he heard I’d told you. Apparently, it could mess up your chances with Azrael.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain later. Theo stormed off to tell his boss, and he…he—” Sablo choked as he once more faced the consequences of his monumental stupidity.

“Sablo? What the fuck? Are you crying?”

He took a deep, shuddering breath. “He…he broke up with me. Told me to get out and not come back.”

The stunned silence on the other end of the phone said it all. He tried to suppress his sobs, but a few got out.

“Pack your bags. I’m coming to get you.”

All comments about Theliel’s reaction are to be addressed to Aditus. I’m still in hiding from the wrath of him and Ayil.