Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

II

The next day, when Cassiel got up to meet again with the angel, he found him in the same exact spot he had left him the night before.

“Did you stay there all night?” he asked, kind of put off by that fact.

“Yes, I did. I have been waiting for you while you went to do the sleeping.” Suriel replied, with the same calmness as yesterday. “You don’t need sleep, so why did you do it anyways?”

The demon sat down lazily besides him. The sun was shining through the windows, slowly warming up the house while the clouds were kind enough to let it out. Spring seemed closer every day, seeing how many getaways the sun had been part of lately.

“It feels nice, okay? Even though I don’t necessarily need it.” He started explaining to him. “My mind isn’t really the most positive one out there, so an activity that makes it shut up for some time is appreciated.”

The angel didn’t comment on his answer, either because he didn’t understood his reasons or he just didn’t care about it. The demon though, for a second, thought he heard him whisper something like ‘interesting…’

“Alright, so let me explain to you how the conversion works, shall I?” Cassiel nodded affirmative to him, so he continued. “It only has three simple steps to follow. The first one is regret, which means what its name is. Regretting your betrayal and wanting to make up for it. The second one is proving these emotions, working or doing something good for society to show your change of heart. Pretty easy, right?”

“But what’s the last step? You said it has three.” The demon inquired.

“It’s convincing another demon to change as well…” He said this rather painfully. No wonder why, demons aren’t known exactly for being creatures that you can rationalize with. Most of them have already been rotten enough to not want to go back. “You aren’t going to back up, are you?” he added with a hint of anxiety, which amused Cassiel quite a bit. The angel actually had emotions!

“Well, it does seem a little difficult…” Cassiel replied, trying to maintain a neutral face while seeing the increasing fear in the angel’s face. “What was in for me, again?”

“Uh, becoming an angel again and getting rid of your current, awful status? Gaining the forgiveness of your father again?”

“Oh yeah, right!” he said, faking surprise, and looked into the opposite direction so Suriel couldn’t see the huge grin begging to come out of his face. Nevertheless, he maintained a neutral voice.  “I don’t know… it’s just asking too much for something that isn’t even that appealing-“

The demon was taken off guard when Suriel grabbed him in a desperate manner by his arm, looking at him with anguished eyes.

“It is worth it!” his voiced had different feelings in it that he couldn’t recognize. “It’s the best thing that could happen to you, trust me!”

As soon as he realized how he was acting, he let go of him visibly ashamed. Interesting…

“Hey, if it is that important for you I’ll do it.”

“It’s not…” The boy scowled and looked away for a second, his cheeks blushed in embarrassment, before talking again more steadily. “It’s not about me; it’s about you and how you feel.”

The demon didn’t answer right away. The living room stood quiet, like if time didn’t passed there. Not a single object in the house made a sound except for the whistling and rustling of the tree’s branches by the strong, cold wind outside. Neither of them talked for a while, maybe as to not to interrupt the room’s peace or just because they were thinking. Strangely, demons take too much time thinking for a creature who isn’t supposed to be reasonable, or at least the low classes aren’t supposed to be. What do they think about? It depends, but either way… they end up thinking too much. Too much for their own good.

“We already have the first step, don’t we?” Cassiel thought out loud, finally breaking the silence between them.

“We?” Suriel looked at him dreamily. Then, as if the spell of the quiet room had broken, he understood what he meant. “Ah, yes! We do have that already! And it seems like you made a nice house for yourself, so it looks like the second one will be easy as well!”

And then the spell broke for him too.

“Uh, well… I didn’t make the house.”

“Oh! So you bought it?”

“Also not… I kind of took it.”

“…took it from…?” Oh boy he was ready to be disappointed.

“Some couple here, by showing them my soul.”

“Cassiel!” the disillusion in his voice almost made the demon feel bad. Almost.

“I needed a place quickly! It wasn’t my fault they just lived in nowhere!”

The angel shook his head in disbelief.

“It’s still wrong. You can’t do that.” He said standing up, looking around once more. The room was slowly filled with the smell of cinnamon, emanating from the vibrant boy. If this whole “purification” went alright, Cassiel definitely wanted to know how the angel managed to do that.
“Well, looks like we need to start the second step of the process, don’t we?”