Wrote this around 2am, and the story took a weird turn. Should probably stop writing early in the morning. I made half the stuff up.

Betareader: Celestial Fire Lion

Suzuno's Apartment; 10:30pm

"I thought we aren't going to talk about this anymore?"

The room was dark, no candles and no lights, with just a few fireflies outside. Not that it bothered them; their eyes were well accustomed to the dark.

"I said no such thing," Shiro answered his associate, "I merely said that I'll try to avoid the topic."

"You're not doing a very good job at it."

"That's because I don't like avoiding it," Ashiya said plainly as he continues his chore, "Now tell me, do you still like Suzuno?"

"We never established that I did!" Hanzo coughed out, irritated.

"Well, you never said you didn't," Ashiya smirks.

"There's no getting around this, is there?" Hanzo whined.

"Not unless you take that job offer at Shinjuku and move out," Shiro reminded Urushihara about the job offer he received from a tech firm a couple of weeks back to become an industry programmer, "But, given that investigations are still ongoing on your muggings all over Shibuya last year, I'm guessing that isn't an option for you."

"It's beginning to cool down," Hanzo keeps his hopes up; "I'll bet sometime this week it'll be a cold case."

"And when that happens, the Devil King and I will be expecting your departure," Ashiya informed Hanzo, "Now, back to the topic at hand."

Urushihara gave up evading the topic and exhaled, "What do you want?"

"Simple, I want to know whether you like Kamazuki or not."

"I can't answer that," Hanzo replied, void of any energy.

"Don't toy around with me, boy!" Ashiya snapped at the NEET, how dare he deprive Ashiya one of his few pleasures around the household, "Just answer the question! Have you ever had a liking on Kamazuki?!"

"Sheesh, we should really get you a TV," Hanzo groaned under his voice. Ashiya, on the other hand, was still in mid-tantrum, too busy to notice anything Urushihara says beyond this point.

"Have you fallen for Suzuno?! It's such a simple question! Why won't you just answer the damn thing?!"

"What's it to you?!" Hanzo gives in and starts rebutting Ashiya's incoming questions.

"I'm dead set on this! There has to be a way to squeeze it out of you!"

"Live and let live!"

"I can't allow that! I'm too invested in this! Why can't you just answer!?" Ashiya pulls his hair down.

"Because I don't know!" Hanzo barked, "I don't know if I ever did like her; and frankly, I don't think it should matter to anyone if I did."

Upon hearing this, Ashiya calmed down, "I bet it would matter to her," he finishes up the ginger, "As tough and composed as she wants to be, you can see right through her; can't you?"

Hanzo moaned, as much as he didn't want to notice it, it was getting increasingly difficult as the days went on. It was never something big that he could chuck up as her being particularly nice that day, it was always the small tiny things that she did in frequent doses, "I don't know, I always tried to turn a blind eye. I mean, what if there's nothing there to see? I might just be putting her acts under a completely different light; I've read all kinds of people in my time, but something about her just scares me to peer into anything she does."

Ashiya chuckled as he dumped the ginger in the kettle, setting it on the stove to boil, "You really have fallen for this girl, haven't you? Just talking about her has beaten you into a pulp."

Little did Urushihara realize that he was already on the ground. Seeing this, his eyes widened at how stupid he looked and pulled himself together, "It's not like I even like her that much."

"Hm?" Ashiya breathed out in disbelief, "So tell me then, if you don't like her that much, what's all of this?" he gestured at Urushihara's unsteady state.

"I have no idea how to answer that. Living here just sucks. I don't get to go outside; I don't even get to peek out the window when the sun's out. There's nothing to do, it's not like I'm a bum by choice. I still want to be as productive as I can-"

"EHEM!"

"OTHER THAN DOING CHORES! I used to go out at night, taking walks by myself, just to clear the air. But that's not a choice here. I've been trapped within these four walls for a year and every day the room just seems to get smaller. I sleep on the floor and I'm roommates with an OCD manwife and a sarcastic former overlord. I get treated like trash around here because I sided with Olba, but can you really blame a guy for trying to get back to heaven? Back home I was someone, I was feared, and I was respected; rows and rows of demons and humans trembling in anticipation, cowering with every flick of my finger. But down here, I'm a loser; forced to live a life no one should ever go through," his voice starts to shake with every word that comes out, "I killed my enemies as quick and as painless as I could. Malacoda would call me weak for it, but I didn't see why I had to make them suffer. I liked the chaos, the destruction, but never the pain and angst," Hanzo shrank as he recalled all the lives he'd stolen, families left with no fathers to look after them, he winced; after all, he was an angel, he was trapped by the situation he was in. He killed because he needed to.

"I… I didn't know," Ashiya cowered in regret.

"Still, I'd much rather spend my time here than to take another father from the comfort of a complete family," Hanzo then composed himself, "Living here still sucks though, with my fellow demons brushing me aside, it's nice to have someone like Kamazuki looking after me like that. Everything sucks about this place, but having her there day in and day out makes it all suck a little less," he laughed at himself, it all seemed silly to him, "Maybe I do like her. Maybe I spend the time I have waiting for her to come through the door. Maybe I hold my breath every time she comes near. Does it matter? At the end of the day, no matter how sweet or caring she is, I'm still nothing but bad news to her; and keeping her from having any kind of relationship with me is the best I could offer."

"Wow," Ashiya blurted out in sarcasm, "How gallant of you."

"I try as best I can," Hanzo replied to Shiro's sarcasm with his own.

"Still-" he gets cut off by the whistle of the kettle. Ashiya stands up and places the kettle to the side and then resumes, "Still, you're probably leaving in less than a week; wouldn't you at least try telling her any of this?"

"Leaving her here is hard enough, letting her go with this in tow is just going to make it harder on me," Urushihara recognizes that there's no point in hiding his admiration of Kamazuki from Shiro anymore.

"You've really grown soft haven't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I never thought I'd see a melodramatic Urushihara, it ruins the stoic cool guy vibe you have going. But the emo feel works too, it goes great with your hair."

"Aren't you supposed to bring the kettle over to Maou?"

"Hey! Watch how you address the dark lord!" Ashiya barked at him, "As a matter of fact, why don't you bring it over? I've been working all day around this house."

"Pfft. Fine," Hanzo grabs the kettle and walks down the hall.

He opens the door and stumbles upon three figures sleeping in the dark. He figured that it was already 1:00am and tiptoed over to the table to place the tea down. He looks over to the young lady sleeping in his bed and crawls toward her. He sits beside the futon and looks down at Suzuno. Even when she's asleep, she still doesn't lose her charm. She looked content and rested; she seemed like she could sleep like that forever. Urushihara smiled to himself, remembering the moment he shared with her amidst the storm. Well, he didn't really share it with anyone, given that she was asleep. The moment was all his, and so was this one. He marvels at the moonlight as it shimmers on her hair, he smiled some more. What he'd give for another minute holding her in a cold corner, just one minute; but no one ever gets lucky twice, do they? It was still something he could hold on to once he left.

"I can't believe I've fallen for you," he whispered to her, as soft as he could. She was asleep, so it's not like she's going to hear him all the way from dreamland, right? He felt as if a thorn has been pulled out his chest, saying it just felt right; and no one was there to hear. This moment was his and his alone.

Without warning, Suzuno opens her eyes; and with a soft, drowsy voice, "Hanzo?"

I hope it didn't suck that badly. T-T Admittedly, my writing is kinda off in this chapter.

Let me know what you think. (Still don't know how to play around the MaouxEmi ship. I'm hopeless.)