It started, as did so many dangerous things, with boredom.
The place was a meeting on the Bridge that ALL of Satan's immediate family were required to attend, but not necessarily pay attention to. This in itself was a dangerous thing. The archangels and a few of the lesser important angels were also there. That mix was a dangerous thing.
Kouryuu was bored.
And THAT was a very dangerous thing.
He was also mildly irritated that he'd slept through all of the instructions on what was supposed to be discussed, so he couldn't even follow the meeting properly. The day before, Kokyou had been supposed to fill him in, but, well... he smiled a bit wickedly. They hadn't gotten around to the information part of the filling in. That had only been the morning, of course, but Kouryuu had been, was, and always would be, a heavy sleeper. Kokyou hadn't woken him up until the next morning when he ended up kicked out of bed.
Not the sex-filled romp with his cousin or his catgirls that he was used to as a way to wake up in the morning.
Of course, because it was only Satan's family allowed at the meeting, he couldn't even bring said catgirls and wander off someplace to liven things up -- at least for himself and Hari and Ruri. But no. Instead he could wander through the bright, cheerful Bridge between heaven and hell, look at the stream, kick small animals around... and it just wasn't any fun. Just because he was Satan's nephew...
Which was when he saw the angel kneeling ahead of him.
Kouryuu froze, remembering Kokyou's parting words to him -- Oh, cousin? Leave the angels alone -- and eyed the unknowing angel.
Slender -- as they all were -- and honey blond, hair mostly short except for one curly lock winding down the right side of his head. The clothes were loose and flowing and large transparent wings spread behind him -- Kouryuu would assume the angel was male until proven otherwise. Angels seemed to waffle so much between the genders, anyway.
He was... beautiful.
Kouryuu thought that without having even seen the angel's face and got mad at himself. Slender-little-boy-figures held no attraction for Kouryuu. No, for that incubus, it was gorgeous curves or big manly shoulders. Not little half-and-half androgynous angel types.
Particularly not, Kouryuu thought, noticing the angel's activities, little half-and-half androgynous angel types who giggled and played with small furry animals.
Yick.
Cousin? Leave the angels alone.
Fuck that, Kouryuu thought visciously, sneaking up quietly behind the angel. Satan's son Kokyou was too damn serious, anyway.
He announced his presence to the heavenly being with a hard slap to the back, right between the wings. "Hey, there! Who are you?" The angel's pain at the slap washed to him and he smiled, eyes half-lidding themselves quickly. This one hurt so quickly and so easily... there would be pleasure in this.
The angel stood, quickly, turning to look at him, eyes wide.
Probably fear of one of the demon kind, though of course Kouryuu liked to flatter himself and say it was his looks. Not that those were half bad -- his long dark curls framed a sharp, smooth-skinned face, angular violet eyes were lashed thickly, and his slender figure wore a form-fitting black suit with space at the back for his own black-feathered wings. But no, this wasn't attraction he was feeling from the angel.
Fear was good enough.
"I... I'm Kohaku," the angel said, bowing quickly. "... uh..."
Kouryuu noticed his eyes were gold.
"Kohaku, huh?" Kouryuu thought of where he'd heard that name before. "You must be the angel who sings angel eggs into hatching!" He laughed, loud and harsh. "Your voice must be awful if it'd make eggs crack!"
Golden eyes widened and filled with tears. "Kohaku is... Kohaku is important for this! You shouldn't --"
"Sure," Kouryuu snorted. "I bet none of the other angels have a voice that awful. Stupid way to be made important, in my opinion!"
Kohaku turned, shoulders shaking, leaping into the air. "...Kohaku has to go, now..."
For a moment, Kouryuu watched hair and wings get caught by the wind and then he let his breath out with a, "My name's Kouryuu! Remember that!"
Torturing Kohaku quickly became one of his favourite forms of entertainment. Almost, he found, as fun as sex. Certainly the pain Kohaku felt so easily gave him as much pleasure.
Unfortunately, the opportunity to torture Kohaku didn't come very often. He couldn't go to heaven, Kohaku didn't go to earth, and the Bridge meetings were sporadic and rare.
Sex it was, then.
"I'm going to the Bridge," Kokyou said, rolling out of bed and forming clothes -- armour -- around himself. "I'll see you at the meeting."
Rolling into the warm vacated spot, blankets wrapped firmly around himself, something occured, distantly, to Kouryuu. "The meeting's not until the evening..." he murmured, not bothering to open his eyes.
"I know. Go back to sleep."
Kokyou went missing.
It was, of course, a shock to the public. Satan's son, gone, without a trace. Satan refused to order a hunt for him. Hari and Ruri were gossiping about it. Constantly.
Kouryuu was angry, and hurt.
And bored.
He flew to the Bridge, not really caring that he'd be alone there. He wanted Kokyou. The want made him think, oddly, of Kohaku.
Kohaku, from whom tears flowed like honey. Kohaku, who shrunk at night the same way Kouryuu shrunk during the day. Kohaku, who...
A raven interrupted his thoughts and he listened to the message.
A grin, dusky and dark as the rest of him. On earth? Kohaku was on earth? Indefinately?
He wasn't needed in Hell. Indefinate leave sounded good to him. Seemed to work for Kokyou, anyway.
Torture... he could almost taste it.
Having nearly constant access to Kohaku -- who was living in a temple with a tall, silent, manly fellow named Shuuichirou who reminded him oddly of Kokyou -- was exhilarating. Intoxicating.
Anticipation for night time to fall so he could resume his stronger form and go after the angel again -- it was sweet, the way anticipation rarely was for him. Sweet enough to make his pupils shrink and his breath come more quickly. And if he delayed his other reason for coming -- his search for Kokyou -- well, there was nobody to fault him for it. He could do nothing less than perfectly in Hari and Ruri's eyes, after all.
Time after time he'd torture the angel, laugh, feel the hurt feelings strong enough to bring him to his knees -- when he found out that Kohaku was searching for the missing Archangel Hisui... well, that seemed like perfect ammunition to use against the angel.
And so he attacked Kohaku and his human, and never expected Hisui to show up, let alone with Kokyou.
When Kokyou explained -- yes, thank you, they were fine, he was in love with Hisui, was going to live with Hisui forever more, even if heaven and hell hunted them down and declared war, even if it meant (and it did) sleeping with Hisui and only Hisui -- well, Kouryuu went through the Stages very quickly. Anger. Denial. Acceptance.
But under the acceptance, anger remained. He couldn't pinpoint why he almost cried when Kokyou tussled with him the way they always did, but without the usual sexual edge. He couldn't figure out why every time the angel and the demon looked at each other with that love, that all-encompassing love, he wanted to scream and hit things. Why when Hisui and Kokyou had differences or he could make Kokyou uncomfortable by talking about his cousin's past conquests -- why he felt smug. Very, terribly smug, as Hisui's eyebrows raised and Kokyou shrugged.
Why he cried the first time he overheard Kokyou and Hisui making love.
Torturing Kohaku made him feel better, but didn't make the anger go away.
He also couldn't figure out why he got mad when he saw Kohaku making calf-eyes at Shuuichirou, the human.
Couldn't figure it out until much, much later.
"Hi, Kohaku! Aren't you feeling well?! In order to cheer you up, I'll really, really torture you!!!"
Tears flowed.
"...why are you so small during the daytime, Kohaku?!"
And flesh met flesh as the angel, sobbing, flung himself into Kouryuu's arms, soft face burying itself in daytime-rounded tummy, crying so hard that his words wouldn't come through.
He found himself blushing at that touch, unknowing what to do.
"I... can...'t... sum..."
"I don't understand you!"
Kouryuu took a step back, so only Kohaku's hands were touching him.
Kohaku managed, slowly, to explain, as Kouryuu separated himself so he floated nearby. Unable to go away.
Hisui and punishment... and Kohaku's own...
"WHAT?! THAT'S ALL?! AND YOU'RE PUNISHED SO HARSHLY?!"
He was angry, bitterly angry at Kohaku's tears, screamed in Kokyou's face when his cousin came in, railed at God, at Satan, at ... at whatever he could rail at.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.
Someone else was torturing his angel.
His angel was hurting so badly. So ... badly.
And that's when he knew.
And it wasn't fair, really it wasn't. Not for Kohaku. Not for Kouryuu. Because he knew, then, why he'd been angry for what seemed like years.
And Kohaku was in love with Shuuichirou, would wait forever for Shuuichirou.
With no more punishment.
Which meant, if nothing else, that Kohaku was Kouryuu's, and Kouryuu's alone, at least where torture was concerned.