"I know what I'm going to do with you." Michael came into my room and immediately sat on my bed, leaning against my shoulder slightly.

"Oh?" I said. I had a book in hand- a sort of papery poetry and prose collection by the other angels- and was idly reading whatever seemed interesting.

It had been another week and I was feeling perfectly fine. Really- I was absolutely ready to get back outside and into Heaven. The knowledge of my freak out hadn't been forgotten, and maybe I was a bit wiser from it. Alright. There'd be a better time to mull the implications over sometime in the future, I was sure. Right now I was busy being absolutely fine.

But I had stayed in bed, much to my boredom. Sometimes Cassiel would come by, and she had been bringing me books and dinner most days. Dohn was back, alive, but he wasn't allowed to visit. I think the limit was so only the real esteemed angels could come by- meaning I was stuck with just Cassiel and Michael for company.

Michael. Well, he hadn't gotten much better at lying. Or upholding the image I had long held him in. He usually came in to sweet talk me into something- it never was really clear what he wanted- or to draw me something. I had him draw me flowers mostly, and they hung next to my bed. Sometimes he'd read me poetry or metaphor-filled stories, but only from the top of his head- his eyes only skimmed at the words in the books.

"What do you think I have in mind?" Michael teased, grinning impishly and taunting me with a finger.

"Something I'm not going to be enthusiastic about."

"You're not happy to do anything lately, Nichael. Once I get you up and running again, you'll be happy to do anything for me." He laughed.

"Let's hear it."

"Alright, so from what I've gathered you're still moping about here because some demon scared you a little. So I can't have you back in the army, obviously. I could put you back on farm work, but last time you were equally miserable and mopey about it. Normally I'd tell you to suck it up, but since you're so dear to me, I don't mind making an exception."

"So?"

"So, I think I'll put you in charge of my babies."

"Your babies." I had forgotten about them.

"Yes! Uh, Malphea and... Hih. Those two. I already have Xixiel tending to them, but I'll put him back in the army. You take over. Your duties are just making sure they are fed, watered, clean and healthy for say, five more years. Then I'll pick you up and care for them myself."

"Pick me up? From where?"

"Oh, I have them in a little hut in the neighboring town. Can't have any of my angels getting bothered by them, after all. You'll do good in isolation, Nichael."

I wasn't offended by the prospect, to be honest, but it wasn't really something I wanted to do. But there was no arguing with Michael when he was excited. If he couldn't find a place for me in Heaven, he was going to have to kill me. That was much obvious.

"Alright." I said. "Am I right to presume I can start anytime?"

Michael didn't help me get out of bed, and I stumbled with a bit of head sickness to walk. I shook out my legs, and he watched as I got dressed.

"They're not your babies though, right?" I asked, as he lead me outside with a sort of sudden solemnness.

"Of course they are." He said quickly, looking around to make sure no one heard our conversation's subject.

"But only that you've taken them in, right? You didn't... conceive them?"

"They're my children."

"But not by blood."

He paused and then turned around to give me a half smile. "Oh, you're pretty good. The only blood around here is that of my brothers. I wouldn't lie about that. No, Nichael, I didn't physically create these children- but I did in a broader sense. Without me there would be no angels, and there would be no... halfbreeds."

"Are we calling them that now?"

"Halfbreeds? Mutants? ...Halfies? I don't know. Take your pick." He shrugged.

We were out of Heaven now, on the broken pavement road to the next town over. It had to have a name, I guess. Heaven was in an old town too. It had another life before this one as well.

But the signs were all gone, missing or maybe rusted away. I didn't know the first thing about what happened to metal over two hundred years, but it sounded likely.

"I don't know the first thing about child care." I said.

"Neither do I. Neither does Xixiel. Don't worry, it's probably instinct or something." He said.

As we entered town, I watched the oak ridge orphanage carefully.

"Don't leave." He said, and he left it at that.

We arrived finally on a house that was in pretty good shape overall. It was a plain white and sat on a sot of suburban hill surrounded by a couple other houses that didn't really look like it but had the same sort of design to them.

We walked right through the door, and a man came running out of one of the rooms. He bowed before Michael and nodded at me.

"What is the reason, Michael?" He said. But of course, he had used Michael's formal angelic name, so it took him a while to finish speaking.

"I'm replacing you with Nichael. Where's the babies?"

"Oh- have I not been doing my job to satisfaction?" He looked to the ground.

"Where's the babies?"

He gave a sort of jolt and then ran to another room. A few moments later he came running out with two children in his arms.

Malphea, the older, still looked like a child. Hih still looked like a baby. I guess they both looked older- Malphea had to be almost three by now, while Hih was 9 and a half months. But children were such weird looking things to begin with, I didn't really see any growth.

"How are they?" Michael asked, petting Malphea on the head. "She's pretty large."

"Uh, yeah." Xixiel said. Malphea really was too large to be held with one arm, and she was throwing a fit about it. "Mal's just sort of angry... all the time. Hih's pretty happy, but Mal sort of hates me." As she continued to struggle, Xixiel gave up on holding her and placed her on the ground.

"Surely she can talk by now?" I asked.

"Uh, I don't know. She makes noises a lot. If I touch any of her stuff she sort of yells at me? It's scary. I talk to her sometimes and I think she understand a bit of it. But, uh..."

"Kids don't even learn to talk until they're five or so." Michael said cheerily. "She's just figuring herself out."

"Five? That long? I mean, she's almost three now." I said.

"Trust me, I raised my brothers from babyhood and none of them could speak until they were five or six. Took Uriel until he was ten."

"Are you... sure?" Sometimes I had the slightest break in my mind, where I'd remember something from my past life. This was not one of those times. I was just feeling pretty unsure about Michael's assurances.

"I just told you: I've raised kids before. I know what to expect. Anyways, Xi, come with me. You're back to fighting. Nichael, you stay here and figure things out."

"You're leaving that fast?"

Michael looked at me like I was an idiot. "Yes."

"Shouldn't Xixiel tell me the basics of-"

"Come on Xixi! Let's go." Michael said jauntily, and he took Xixiel by the hand and let him out the door. A moment later, he returned in order to place Hih in my arms. Then he left for good.

I cradled the child. I wasn't actually going to stay here and tend to these children for five years, and I had a feeling Michael knew that. And yet he had done nothing to prevent me from leaving. Except asking me not to, of course.

I am not a rebel. I don't follow such naive philosophies. But a lot of angels were, and a lot of people were, and I decided there had to be something gained from the whole experience.

Malphea was walking away from my feet, making a sort of weird noise as she did so. I followed her to where I guess she and her sister had been living- there were a lot of blankets in a pile, and then again in a cardboard box that was probably Hih's crib. She went to a corner and started to play with a little wooden block. I guess Xixiel had made it for her. I hoped he hadn't grown too attached to these children.

I put Hih in her box and briefly considered killing the both of them. They were abominations, that was a sort of established fact at this point. They were children, too. Easy to kill, probably.

Truthfully, I wasn't really sure I'd be able to go through with it. I didn't find them cute, but I did find them innocent and vulnerable. It felt weak to kill them out of fear now. Let them grow into something fearful first.

Michael was probably down the street by now, and that was far enough for me. I realized the moment I tried to pick Malphea up that she didn't really want to go anywhere with me, but overall I was still an adult and she was still a child. I had to carry her with two arms.

Leaving Hih behind, I walked out the door. Time to head to the past Earth, I guess. My departure from Heaven was not how I had hoped or thought it'd ever be, but I guess there's never a way to tell how something's going to work out until it does.

I placed Malphea on the floor in one of the dusty side rooms of the orphanage and then ran back up to grab Hih. When I had them both in the same place, I did my best to hold them both- I couldn't exactly just toss them in the portal- and stepped through.

The room was rebuilt around me with a wave of dust into a younger version of itself. But the change was hardly noticed, almost trite until I came up the steps and into the halls of a building that, while not in use, was still being lived in.

I made my way outside, still a bit unsure of what I was doing but otherwise quite ready for the world of the Earth. The gardener- same one, I recognized, from before- was still tending to the garden.

"This is an orphanage, right?" I called.

"What?" They said. "No one really calls them orphanages anymore, angel. And I don't take orphans in."

"These aren't orphans though, it's okay."

"That's not really the point of what I was saying. Look, you see this building? It's an orphanage. But not anymore. Not for a long fucking time. So I don't take in kids."

"Look, I stole these kids a few months back-"

"Whoa there, I don't usually work with angels. But I never work with crazy child-abducting angels. I'm not a fucking lunatic. You are though."

"It's not like that-"

"God, who made you do it? Fucking Michael? Of course it was Michael. But that doesn't really remove you from the fact that you totally did it. You stole two children."

"Okay, but please just take them from me anyway. I'm not really fit to take care of them to begin with, so uh, you can use your ex-orphan-master skills to raise them better than I could have."

"What, I look like I know how to raise kids?"

"Yes?" I tried delicately.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm sure you have all sorts of fallen angel things to. Partying or whatever you do in that Purgatory place. Drink. Steal children and give them to nearby strangers. Go forth, birdboy. Fuck you." They had a sort of very angry tone to everything they said, but they took Hih and Malphea from me anyways, immediately sitting down to examine them carefully.

"That's Hih, the tiny one, and Malphea, the other one."

"Shit names." They mumbled. "God, these two are in terrible health."

"Sorry?" I offered. I stood around for a few more moments, before determining my presence was no longer required.

I guess... I was free now. Really, really free. Far more than I had ever been in my life, or had ever desired to be. Michael would never bother to track me down if I left this block. The demons weren't expecting me back. The children were going to be okay.

Well. Now what.

Yeah, I sort of forgot about this feeling. Because suddenly I was overwhelmed with it, a sort of dull reminder that my life was maybe a bit more exceptional than some of the other people I had met, and by cutting all these ties, I was only losing the most interesting parts of myself.

Because without Michael, I was a lost thirty-three year old man who could barely read, had no friends or family, and had gathered an extremely haphazard following of demons. But without the demons, I guess I was even more pathetic- just a man with nothing really to live for or do but wander the Earth. And never die until someone did it for me.

I had no weapon either. Sometimes I'd run a finger across my index, waiting for skin to catch on metal, ready at any moment to weaponize my Grace. But I couldn't do that either. All I had was one wing, still useful, but hauntingly so. It should have been so much less and so much weaker. And I should have been as well.

I was never going to fit in with Purgatory and the rough sort of fallens, and I had no desire to commiserate with the temporary humans that inhabited this joke of an Earth.

So, again, I decided to go to Hell again. Nothing better to do, and at least it was something.