His wings were beautiful. I stared up at them in awe. Never had I seen something so lovely, so exquisite. He had told me how he became a fallen. How his wings had been ripped and destroyed, turned into useless scraps of the regal appendages they once were. But here Cephirial stood before me, somehow incredibly, with large powerful white wings.

He must have regained favor with God.

"Allen," the man before me was sick with worry. He hugged me tightly, as if he was afraid I'd disappear if he let me go. "I thought I had lost you," Cephi admitted quietly.

I could only shake my head to that statement and assured him in jumbled sentences that I was, in fact, alive. But even I had thought I was dead. I remembered it. The pain of the wound Theo had inflicted. I knew I was dying. The pain had been so unbearable. So great.

And then it just stopped.

Everything was warm and peaceful.

But I saw nothing.

Nobody was there to greet me, welcome me over. And I immediately thought there should have been someone there. I wanted a certain brooding angel who had made my mundane life as a starving artist into something more.

And now I had him. I wasn't dead. And Cephirial wasn't either. We were both okay.

I took his hand in mine and started leading the way out of this area. Although I honestly had absolutely no clue where I was going, I knew where I wanted to go.

"Let's go home."

Cephi nodded.

I stopped when we got to the mouth of the cave and turned to face my angel. I gave him the most sheepish grin I could muster, "Uh, before we go any further maybe you should put your wings away."

Cephi grumbled something about forgetting the stubs had come out and I decided as soon as we got home I'd show him his wings were no longer the stubs he remembered.

I was surprised when we ended up at Cephi's house. We both decided we needed a shower. (which we took separately) He let me take one first and then I laid on his soft bed waiting for him to finish with his shower. I heard the water turn off and a few minutes later Cephirial walked out of the bathroom in only a pair of pajama pants. And boy was I glad the dresser was on the other side of the room. Gave me more time to ogle his perfect body.

He looked over to me and caught me staring. Feeling particularly bold, I just grinned and lifted a suggestive brow.

Cephi just sighed shaking his head before opening his dresser drawer and pulling out a simple white T-shirt.

It was then that I remembered that he had yet to see his wings. "Wait," I said quickly, "before you put that shirt on, there's something you need to see."

"Yeah, and what's that?" the angel asked a slight curious edge to his seductive voice.

I hopped off the bed and headed toward the bathroom motioning for him to follow me. There was nowhere else in the house with a mirror. When we were situated the way I wanted, him in front of the mirror, me at his side, I gently ordered him to take his wings out.

                                                           ~HS~

Cephirial didn't understand. Why would Allen tell him to take his wings out? He didn't want to be reminded of something he no longer possessed. If he was completely honest with himself, it was hard enough seeing Allen with that beautiful set of wings. He knew he was jealous, but it was just too much of a reminder. And asking him to look upon his stubby remains was a slap in the face.

He opened his mouth to tell Allen there was no way he would take them out, what happened when he was fighting Theo was a fluke and he was sorry Allen had to see it.

But the look Allen was giving him. Cephi internally groaned knowing he was going to lose this argument.

"Please trust me," the young man looked up at him with those soulful eyes and lightly brushed his hand on Cephi's bare shoulder. The angel delighted in the pleasant feeling those fingers sent through his body.

He sighed knowing Allen had won. He was going to take his useless stubs out... but that didn't mean he had to look at them. Cephi closed his eyes and slowly let his wings out.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Allen asked the man, obviously quite pleased with himself. "Open your eyes. Don't you want to see them?"

"No," Cephrial's firm answer came immediately.

"Fine," Allen snapped back. "Fine," he breathed out more gently realizing his tone had been a bit harsh.

Cephirial felt the boy walk behind him and immediately went tense. Sure normally the wings were a highly... arousing and sensuous area but that was when they were in tact. All a fallen angel felt was pain.

Allen placed his hands lightly on Cephi's back and slowly made his way to the base of the his wings. He corded his hands through the feathers and rubbed firmly but gently right where the tender skin met soft white feathers, smiling when Cephirial let out a loud moan.

The angel's brow crinkled in confusion. Why did it feel so good? He let out a throaty moan and his eyes snapped open in shock. He focused on Allen's impish grin before seeing white. Lots of white. His wings were healed! God must have forgiven him.

He gave a little shout of joy, turning around and grabbing his Allen capturing the man in an amorous embrace before kissing him searing and hard. He grabbed the man picking him up, and smirked into the kiss as Allen wrapped his legs tightly around Cephi's waist, causing a delicious friction in between them. He lead them out to the bed and slowly, lovingly, placed Allen down on it. The boy looked so alluring with those just kissed lips, panting ever so slightly from their activity in the bathroom.

He leaned over Allen and tugged at the boy's pants slowly asking permission to continue. Allen bit his lip and nodded his consent. All too soon Cephirial's angel was sprawled out naked on his bed, looking up at him through his eyelashes. A lesser man would have jumped him right there but Cephirial had more control than most and... also really wanted this to last a good portion of the night.

It was at that moment that Allen looked to Cephirial and realized with a pout that he had too much clothing on. He slowly crawled to the man and reached out pulling his pajama pants off. Excellent. He had been going commando which left Allen painfully close to Cephirial's erect penis.

He left out a little giggle. "I want to kiss you," he whispered like it was some big secret before languidly moving to a kneeling position on the bed so he could reach Cephirial's tantalizing mouth. His mouth opened easily when Allen licked at his bottom lip and their tongues were locked in a friendly battle that somehow ended with Cephirial sucking a particularly sensitive spot on Allen's neck. Allen let out an appreciative moan and bucked his hips forward which caused both men to groan as their groins created that oh so delicious friction.

Allen decided it was time to move their activities to a more horizontal direction. So he slowly began to lean back onto the bed, dragging Cephirial down on top of him.

Overcome with emotions, with how right his life had suddenly ended up Cephirial opened his mouth to say something to that effect to his lover, "Allen I-

"Shh, I know," Allen whispered his hand gently brushing Cephirial's face. And as Cephi looked into his eyes he knew Allen really did know all that he was going to say because he saw the same thoughts reflected in Allen's eyes.

                                                           ~HS~

I woke up to find myself in Cephirial's bed. I sighed content. Even if he wasn't here this morning, last night had been fantastic. My body ached in such a good way and I felt fulfilled, complete. After lounging around in bed for another half hour I decided it was time to get up.

I got out of the bed stretching and quickly went to take a shower. Once I was all squeaky clean I got dressed in some clothes, generously provided by Cephirial, and went out into the main living area. I expected to see my angel somewhere out in here but after a quick look around I realized that he wasn't even in the house.

Where did he go?

Something about him leaving after we just made love like that felt off. Maybe he had some business he needed to take care of? I shrugged these thoughts off and decided to just go home. Cephi knew where I lived. He'd find me when he wanted me. I hoped.

The first thing I did when I got home was start up a routine again. I painted every day. Pictures of, you guessed it, Cephi. I couldn't bring myself to stop painting him, even though it hurt me to only see him in the paintings I created. But now there was sometimes another angel alongside Cephirial. An angel that bared an uncanny resemblance to me.

One week went by.

Then two.

I threw myself into my work so the pain of not seeing Cephirial wouldn't become too unbearable. Even so, I found myself much more prone to crying now and would just burst into tears at random times. Tim was worried about me. Heck, even Mr. Jacobson was worried that he hadn't seen one of my friends lately. And I was worried, but for a different reason. I feared I would never see Cephirial again. That maybe that beautiful night had been a one time thing. But... that couldn't be all I meant to him.

He meant more than that to me.

After about a month I had just about given up hope of ever seeing him again. It was like he just disappeared form the planet. My life felt hollow and incomplete without Cephirial in it. But I had to continue living.

I was painting a picture late into the night, a habit I developed when I realized I saw him every time I closed my eyes, when there was a knock on the door.

I figured I might as well answer it. It was late, and the odds of it being a friend were slim, but when had a door ever kept the bad people out.

I opened the door.

Tears immediately fell from my eyes. I didn't know whether to be happy or extremely angry. I decided to go with happy. "Cephi," I all but whispered afraid if I spoke too loud this lovely man would disappear from my life a second time.

He smiled at me. "It took me over a month but I finally convinced that almighty pain in my ass," at his words there was a grumble of thunder, as if protesting his word, "that I wanted to be here with you."

So, he had been in heaven. He came back to me from heaven. I giggled in my absolute joy and pulled him into a hug.

"I missed you," I spoke the biggest understatement of my life gently but still managed an unspoken don't you dare leave me again.

"I love you," Cephirial answered. And to me those words were a promise. A promise that from now on Cephirial and me would always be together.