Disclaimer: Clamp made Kurofai...and I have nothing witty to add to that.

Okay, while this story was initially intended as a gift to my best friend Msrukia, however, given that I have been reading way too much Anne Rice and Dante recently, it's turned a lot more...not necessarily dark just very philosophically vague . Given this supernatural philosophical leaning, this story may at times be confusing-ish. This is intentional :P

And now, on with the tale, Enjoy!

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"Forgive me father for I have sinned. It has been three nights since my last confession."

"What is your sin my child?"

"I have killed the man I love."

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The distant chime of church bells calls out in the empty night. The wind blows cold and a strand of white blond hair flies loose from a thin red string. Thick lashes blink slowly, yellow slit eyes disappear, wings extend, black and monstrous. A demon smiles.

In the same instant, a white-clad angel looks down and sighs, his white-feathered wings folded behind him cushioning his back against the rugged stone pillar of the highest arch in the nearby cathedral. The bell tolls in his ears, and he can feel the demon's smile approaching.

"A double death tonight, we're going to be busy till daybreak. Ne, Kuro-fluff?"

The angel does not look behind him, does not acknowledge the other man's presence, his confidence evident in that he keeps his back turned to his enemy.

"It's a simple case, it's shouldn't take long. But knowing you, you'll probably drag out every detail," says the angel, his brow furrowing as a wicked demonic laugh rings out in the air. Every laugh a burst of dark energy that reverberates towards him in putrid waves that beat against his skull. The sound high pitched and unnatural, dissonant with the still-tolling bells.

The bells stop, and so does the accompanying laughter.

"You're as stubborn as ever. It's two murderers, they're obviously mine!" The demon's voice is calm and teasing. The angel can't help but turn to the voice. The voice of a demon that, to him, sounds more like an angel's any day. As usual, he is struck by the paradox of such a divinely crafted face eternally shadowed by the hideous black-scaled wings of a devil. With blond hair more fit for Michelangelo's cherubs and pure skin as white as daylight or the shine of the moon.

The angel sighs. "This is going to take some time."

Without saying anything more, he suddenly appears at the corner of the street down bellow and makes his way to an adjacent café. He knows full well that the demon could not have stayed near the church for long.

"Are you sure we should go?" asks the demon. "The man's nearly done with his confessions."

"And he'll pass by here on his way out. He'll be praying in the church for a long time."

"Little help that'll do."

The angel does not bother launch into a lecture on the virtues of prayer, as it would have been more than vain in present company. Not to mention tedious. He simply opens the wooden door of the café and waits for his partner to enter.

"Aww! You're too kind Kuro-pyon, always taking me on these fancy dates," says the blond as he prances inside. Moments later, one of the mortal staff comes to close the door looking quizzical. Naturally she cannot know the reason for the door's behavior and that right then they had an angel and demon staying under their roof.

The angel ignores the other man's commentary on the romantic atmosphere and cozy feel of the place; he just sits down in his usual spot in the corner, listening to everyone and everything around him. The demon takes a seat opposite him, and there is a silence as they appreciate the many minds around them.

"So you really are going to be stubborn about this," says the demon finally, starring at the angel with unabashed interest.

"Naturally, it's my job."

"You really think you can cheat me out of a couple of murderers?"

"Cheat you, why I wouldn't dream of it!" says the angel, displaying a rare smile that tugges at the edge of his lips.

"Fine then, you plan on debating all night long over a these two killers?" The demon takes comfort in the other man's joking, he smiles widely in return.

"Men are never just one thing."

"But a thing as strong as murder is enough to change any man."

"The same is true for changing him back."

"Well, it's too late for the first one, he's dead and gone."

"Obviously! Or I wouldn't have to sit here with you," the angel adds a 'hmph' for good measure.

"Oh come now Kuro-cutie, didn't you miss me?" The demon asks playfully, his tone bordering seductive. But something about the way he avoids the angel's gaze gives the question a level of seriousness and fear.

The angel remains quite, however. He could not lie, nor could he ever say the truth. Knowingly, the demon just smiles in response. For once not pushing the topic any further, for which the angel was glad.

The angel quickly brings back the main topic of conversation.

"We should focus now on the first death seeing as the second death has yet to come."

"The second death? You mean the suicide."

"That's debatable."

"Funny, I thought there was only one way to interpret a man wrapping his own noose around his neck."

"Don't you think it's rude to bargain over a man's soul before he's even died?"

"You're lecturing me about being rude?"

"I haven't been rude in ages," the angel is a little too quick to defend himself, and the demon sighs sadly.

"I know. I miss it."

"Well I had to change, you know that. How else did you expect to me to get promoted," explains the angel.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to you all calm and peaceful." The demon could not hide the sadness in his voice nor could he stop the regret from crawling back into his head. It was in his nature.

"What part of the old me did you like, jeez I almost cut your head off once!" Kurogane grimaces, thinking back on how reckless he'd been putting Fai in danger like that. He'd been more wrath-prone than a demon!

"You wouldn't have."

"Maybe," Kurogane smiles, but this time the demon does not notice. Kurogane hates the look in those eyes. He hates those eyes to begin with, and he tries to remember when exactly they'd begun to change. It must have been after their pact. It was an unpleasant change, to say the least, so much of this was.

"You've gotten quieter, too, Fai. I worry about you."

Fai relishes in the sound of his name passing through those lips, and for a moment a true smile lights up his face. For that one moment, everything seems okay.

Kurogane feels the pain of regret and sorrow in his heart worse now than ever. While advancing in his job meant getting better, for Fai it meant getting worse. But they'd made a pact, and Kurogane was starting to think that even if he could handle his part, watching Fai like this….

"It's worth it."

The demon and angel smile.

A comfortable silence hangs in the air.

"Let's just finish this as soon as possible. We both have more work to do."

"I don't know about you, Kuro-sweets, but Sloth's actually part of our creed, know what I mean? I'm supposed to be late. Besides, no other job on the schedule allows me to enjoy your company."

"Hmpf, how you guys still manage to beat us will continue to amaze me!"

"Numbers, my dear angel, numbers. We just have the advantage in numbers."

The silence now is deeper as their minds turn thinking of all the insanity around them. They are reminded that there really is a bigger picture.

"Kuro-sama," Kurogane almost snorts at the supposed honorific, but he really can't be so callous anymore. "Kuro-sama, that man was one of the lowest of the low, a real killer. He had no conception of love or any divine form. He killed nearly a hundred people just for money, one target he killed in front of a three year old girl that he then choked to death with his bare hands. How can you—how can you defend someone like that."

"As I said, people change."

"What?"

"The murderer repented and allowed himself to be killed."

"Repented? I hope you're not serious. One moment of doubt with a gun pointed at your chest does not leave you in the right mind to repent." Fai still wore that sticky smile on his face all the time, but Kurogane couldn't help but notice how it got more wicked with every passing year.

"The man's used to guns; he's not the type to let fear of death get to his head," says the angel.

"That's my point, the man feared nothing. Not death, not you, not God. He was cold and ruthless, and that did not change with his death."

"It changed the moment he sought death."

"He did not seek death!" replied the demon automatically. "He got into that fight precisely because he sought to inflict death and suffering and pain!"

"He did seek death by the hands of the man he loved." The angel was quick to notice how the demon practically jumped at the last word.

"Loved?" Fai is beyond incredulous. "You mean he loved someone? The man who killed him, the one in the confessional right now? You've got to be kidding me!"

"That is the problem with you demons, you will never understand love."

The angel stops. The words had come out of his mouth before he could help himself, the bitterness getting the better of him.

"Don't be so arrogant, Seraph. Love is the one thing we know. What is envy but the love of another's possessions? What it pride but the love of oneself? What is love of flesh or power?" the demon glares. "What is torment, but the absence of love, Kurogane?"

In all their years, Kurogane had never seen Fai get remotely angry; this is a change that he had not been prepared for. "Do not insult your station, Kurogane, do not take lightly those on the other side. It is precisely because we know love that we are who we are."

"Then you know of the love that would outweigh a man's own life. What is it when one throws his life away for the sake of another?"

"You cannot be suggesting that this man was capable of self sacrifice?"

"Think about it. He was better equipped, better trained, had far more experience in the arena. Why let the other win? Why else let the man kill him?"

"And how would his death serve the man he loved? If he so loved him, wouldn't he desire to be with him?"

"You do not understand."

There was a heart-beat, and in that second Kurogane knows just how much this is costing them, how much things have changed.

"Excuse me?" the demon doesn't quite know why his humanoid heart had stopped at those four words.

"He was not thinking about his own desires, which is what makes this an act of love. He was thinking of what was best for the other man," explains the angel.

"It was best to make a murderer out of his lover then, how wonderful!"

"Oh, that wasn't murder."

"You're joking! Are you reinterpreting scripture all over again, or has all that time up in the clouds really gotten to you?" At least this time Fai's smiling with that old teasing glint, and Kurogane doesn't mind the insult too much.

"He was faced against a known killer, he was defending himself."

"A known killer, come now, wasn't he an innocent lover-boy not a minute ago?" the demon retorts.

"Just because the killer was in love with him, doesn't mean he acted any differently towards him."

There is a pause, and the demon begins to laugh softly, a sound more like the ones of old, a sound filled with quite amusement rather than demonic mania.

"Kuro-cutie, didn't anyone ever tell you that love was in actions not words?"

"You did. Nearly a dozen times this year alone."

"And you should listen to those smarter than you."

"And you've definitely said that more than a dozen times now."

"I know, but you still never listen."

The share a silent moment, each of them smiling, the humans around them unaware of the quite exchange between preternatural beings an arm's length away.

"Point being, he didn't know the man loved him, or else he wouldn't have sought to kill him."

"So it was wrath at being rejected or else it was greed for what he thought he could never have. It's a mortal sin either way, Kuro-tan." Kurogane smiles at the return of the nicknames. Hearing his name so often had made his feathers itch.

"He was a former priest, even if he tried, that man could never be angry," the angel thinks on the young man still praying at the altar. It was definitely true.

"So what's the reason this time? Wait, let me guess…it was love again! He was acting out of love!" the demon claps his hands together in mock-glee, the smile on his face distorting its beauty.

"He was," replies the angel, his brow furrowing.

"And it wasn't selfish love?"

"No."

"He was serving mankind and God?"

"Yes."

"A former priest, you said?"

"Yes."

"Why'd he give up?"

"He fell in love with a killer."

"I see." The demon's voice loses its strength and what comes out is barely a whisper. "I wish you'd give up."

"I wish you would."

Neither of them speaks, there are no words for this, this fiendish pact they have between them. Kurogane knows that such a thing cannot last, which makes it all the worse.

"Kurogane, you do realize that as long as you love this man, you will never advance in the ranks?"

"I don't understand, Hime. Love is held in high esteem here."

"Selfless love, Kurogane, selfless love. And I know that whatever love you have between you, whatever forms it takes, it is not selfless."

"Yes it is. I want him to be happy. I want him to be saved."

"But that is not his wish, and so long as that is the case, then you are simply acting on your own whims."

"I– I don't need to advance that far. Once I am an archangel everything will be solved."

"You speak of the Reward, the one day a year every archangel and archdemon gets on earth, as free humans?"

"Yes."

"Do you realize what you are asking of him? How hard it will be for you to love him once he is in that state? He will not be the man you fell in love with."

"Nor will I. And I know that he will not falter."

"He may turn selfish and cruel; bring harm to others and himself."

"I will still love him."

"This path will drive you insane, Kurogane. You are strong, and you may last. But his is a path based on weakness."

"I believe in him."

"Once you fulfill your plan and reach earth, you will want more. He will instinctively desire it, it is in his nature. And you will want to fulfill those desires. At that point, there are two possible outcomes, and this I have seen. Either you fall or he rises. This middle ground of yours will not last."

The angel blinks a few times and shakes his head of the conversation he'd had a long time ago with the oracle Tomoyo. His gaze automatically seeks the eyes of the man opposite him. The yellow looks as impenetrable as ever.

"The young man's coming, we should go." The demon's voice is calm and quite. The angel thinks he can hear the determination behind it. The glint in the yellow eyes before him tells him that he's right.

He does not know what this means or how this will end. He doesn't even know the outcome of this night. But as he rises from his seat, he knows that, right now, he has no other choice.

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So, any guesses on who they're debating about? Hint hint: it's a tragic clamp couple (aren't they all!).

On another note: Merry Christmas! This isn't exactly a Christmas story, but it's religious-ish...so idk. Also, it was initially intended as a oneshot, but I think I like it too much. If anyone is reading my other stuff, I'm really sorry about not getting a Through Barred Eyes chapter out...I just didn't like what I wrote. A warning from now, my updating schedule is very erratic. Sorry!

Please everyone, I'm still not sure I want to continue with this story, so reviews are more that loved! Thank you and Merry Christmas again!