The Fat and the Proud

Chapter 2: I'm not your puppet

Michael arrived in front of Ezekiel's apartment later that night and using his powers, he sent a message right into the big Angel's mind.

"Open the door, Ezekiel, it's me"

Meanwhile, inside the apartment, Ezekiel jolted awake, his head pounding as Michael's message echoed inside it.

"M-Michael?" He mumbled, sitting up, mindful of not waking Heather. Why was Michael there? He immediately tensed up, was he there to scold him? But why would he care? Usually fallen Angels were left to fend for themselves with no intervention from Heaven...

His train of thoughts was interrupted by another telepathic message. "Ezekiel, it's Michael, come open the door please, I must talk with you"

The blonde Angel held his head then sighed, knowing he wasn't going to back down, he got up and waddled to the entrance, opening the door.

The Seraphim entered with a grim expression on his face, looking at Ezekiel with his cold, gray eyes.

"M-Michael, what brings you here?" the younger Angel asked.

"You know exactly why I'm here, just look at yourself! I leave you alone for an Earth year and this is what happens- your form is even more corrupted than the last time I've seen you... even after I've told you to work on yourself!" the Seraphim answered firmly, keeping his voice low so as not to make too much noise.

Ezekiel somewhat shrank down, he'd almost gotten used to not being shamed for his size, so those words got him feeling quite embarrassed. "B-but I HAVE worked on m-myself... I'm a lot more confident now a-and I have people who love me here..."

"Are you hearing yourself? That wasn't your task down here! You were supposed to repent, not indulge yourself even more! I've put so much trust in you... and this... this is what you do with it- you have no idea how much I'm risking to let you back in Heaven! So I don't want any more excuses now... just admit your wrongs and come with me I just want to help you out-" Michael said, getting rather frustrated.

Then the lights suddenly turned on.

"Ezy... who is that man?" Heather asked, her eyes widened and her mouth agape, she'd never seen him before...

Before Ezekiel could answer, Michael stepped in. "Ah so you're the one who's been tempting and manipulating my pupil... now I see- and those yellow eyes... you're the descendant of a rebel no less! I knew she wasn't to be trusted..."

"Cut the bullshit and answer me!" Heather shouted, having no idea what he was going on about, but she didn't like it one bit "Who are you and what are you doing in our house?!" she doubled down, stepping in front of Ezekiel, who in that moment, felt stuck between an immovable object and an unstoppable force and was struggling to keep up with what was going on. Michael wanted him to go away? Heather was a descendant? But she sure as heck wasn't trying to manipulate him! Michael was just blowing it out of proportion... if anything... HE was the one who was trying to control him.

Everything felt like a blur to the blonde Angel as the two kept arguing.

"Do you really think he's going to listen to YOU over his mentor?! Step away, human!"

"I'm not stepping away! I won't let you ruin his life again!"

"I'M ruining his life?! Says the heretic who's keeping him away from Heaven!"

"Oh yeah, I bet he'd looove to go back there with his poor excuse of a mentor! How can you call yourself that after how much you've hurt him?! Where were you when he was depressed huh?! You don't really care about him- you only want him to go back because of your own, selfish reasons!"

Michael flinched at Heather's words and gritted his teeth, she'd clearly struck a nerve with that last statement. "'Selfish'? I'm risking my LIFE to bring him back! I suggest you stop making assumptions about me and get out of my way, mortal, before I purify you!" he roared, summoning his weapon, at which point, Ezekiel couldn't take it anymore.

"BOTH OF YOU STOP THIS!!"

He placed himself in front of Heather to protect her.

"I am TIRED! I'm so FFFFFUCKING tired of this! Of you and Heaven pushing your ideals onto me! You put your trust in me?! You're 'risking your life' for me?! you never let me in on ANY of this! Why do you NEED to bring me back?!"

"Ezekiel-" Michael tried justifying himself, but was promptly silenced.

"WHY?!"

Heather had never seen Ezekiel so angry before, and Michael was in shock.

"Ezekiel I... I made a deal with Zaitra..."

The blonde Angel widened his eyes.

"Zaitra said if I managed to redeem you, they'd implement a new system for fallen Angels... to make it easier for them to come back... but if I were to fail... I'd be banished as well..." Michael explained, realizing bit by bit how wrong that sounded, how unfair the conditions were... and to what he'd reduced Ezekiel for that bet.

"So... I was just a pawn to you..." Ezekiel said, lowering his glance, holding back tears. "You thought I was spineless enough to listen to whatever you told me- you didn't even ask me ONCE if I was willing to do this!!" he shouted, his voice cracking.

"Ezekiel I-"

"NO! Shut up! I-I looked up to you! And you think that because of it... you could just treat me as some puppet?! Get out- get the hell out!!" Ezekiel was in tears, but his voice was firm.

Michael had no more words... his initial intentions weren't to reduce him to a pawn at all... but he got carried away and now... there was nothing more he could do to fix his terrible mistake, he turned around and walked away, still processing that massive wake-up call.

Once he left, Ezekiel fell to his knees, sobbing loudly. Heather ran up to him and held him tightly, gently stroking his hair.

"Ezy..."

"I... I can't believe all this time I was just a cog in his machine and nothing more..." he muttered sadly.

"I can't believe that either... still... the way you stood up for yourself and for me... it was amazing, you were really strong back there" Heather tried cheering him up, gently kissing him on the cheek.

Ezekiel blushed a bit and smiled slightly, wiping his tears away. "T-thank you... I-I really don't know what I'd do without you" he replied, hugging her back and hiding his face in her shoulder.

"Can... can we go back to bed and... c-cuddle a bit?"

"Of course, Ezy... it's really late after all" Heather agreed, smiling.