Double Date

by Yai-tzu Hin

Warning: No part of this story or cast of characters may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author, Yai-tzu Hin. If you do, dogs will wake you at 3:00 am in the morning, your hair will go gray at an early age, all you pens will run out of ink at the most inconvenient time, and your computer will always freeze up in the middle of the best part of a fic.

"So, what do you think?" Hades asked as he lounged in a rigid metal chair. Keien stared at him over the table. "I don't know." The two were sitting at a table in the corner of Keien and Yatsurugi's favorite café near their university. Hades had called Keien up that morning and had asked to meet with him. Deciding that turning an angel of Death down wouldn't be such a good idea, Keien had agreed.

"Come on. It'll be fun. Besides from what I've heard and seen, you and Yatsurugi don't go out much." Hades insisted. Keien stared at the angel. Hades was roughly five foot four, with long black hair that he normally braided back, and large red eyes. He was as pale as moonlight practically and always seemed to dress in black, red, or blue. Today he was wearing a pale blue shirt with black pants and leather jacket.

"Look, the snow has melted, spring is on its way, why not go out?" Hades asked leaning forward and propping himself on his elbows.

"I don't know." Keien confessed. "I don't know how Yatsurugi would like the idea."

"You won't know unless you ask. Besides Kayumi and I will be there too."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Kayumi? Nah. She won't do anything now that you and him have established that you're seeing each other."

"You think?" Keien asked hopefully. Hades nodded. "Oh, all right. I'll see if I can convince him to go to the aquarium."

"Great!" Hades exclaimed pushing back his chair as he stood. "Then I'll see you on Saturday. If you need to get a hold of me, I'm at this number." Hades said handing Keien a phone number with an extremely large amount of numbers.

"Where are you staying? Tibet?"

"No, that's my home number in the Elusion fields. Don't worry, it accepts mortal plane calls." Keien sighed and put the piece of paper in his pocket.

Yatsurugi frowned. This wasn't turning out how it was supposed to. He stared at the bowl of batter in front of him. One hand holding a large wooden spoon while the other turned pages in a cookbook. When Keien makes this, it isn't this hard to stir, he thought. What's wrong? Again he read the recipe. He'd added everything that it said, so why wasn't it acting correctly? As he contemplated giving up on the project, Yatsurugi heard the door shut behind Keien.

"Yatsurugi, I'm home." Keien called as he took off his shoes. Hanging up his coat in the closet, he meandered towards the kitchen.

"Hi Keien." Yatsurugi said over his shoulder as Keien poked his head around the corner. His roommate looked skeptically at the bowl and the mess about him.

"What are you doing?" Keien asked unsure he wanted to know.

"I'm attempting to make chocolate chip cookies. The batter doesn't look right though. It's too hard."

"If that's all, add a little water. Not a lot, just like a tablespoon." Keien offered relieved that Yatsurugi was only baking cookies and wasn't trying something as complicated as a cake. Making stuff from scratch was always more difficult and time consuming that using the instant stuff. Although over the last several months, Yatsurugi's cooking had improved, that didn't mean that he wasn't still disaster prone. Keien glanced at his two-month-old microwave and prayed that he wouldn't have to buy another one again.

"You won't. I promise." Yatsurugi stated.

"Haven't I asked you not to listen in on my thoughts?"

"Couldn't help myself." Yatsurugi replied smiling. His blue eyes sparkled as he stirred the mix. One strand of lavender hair pulled itself loose from the tie and fell down in between his eyes. Scrunching up his nose, Yatsurugi glared at the imposing hair and blew it out of his line of sight. It floated back. Yatsurugi put the bowl down and pulled the rubber band out of his hair. Smoothing his hair back, he retied his tail. Keien watched in amusement.

"Did you enjoy your day off?" he asked coming up behind Yatsurugi.

"Yes. It's nice when both your professors are sick and class is canceled." Yatsurugi could feel Keien's breath on his bare neck. "Although it would have been better if I hadn't had to go to class only to find out that it is canceled first. He could have emailed or something."

"We don't have internet access here." Keien reminded him leaning closer.

"I know. We might want to break down and hook your computer up though. It would save us time and energy rather than using the labs."

"We'll talk about it." Keien told him, then leaned even closer so that his lips were millimeters from Yatsurugi's ear. "I need to ask you a question after dinner." Yatsurugi shivered, but Keien left to go change his clothes. Yatsurugi stared at his receding back and wondered what type of question Keien wanted to ask.

"We're supposed to meet them at noon. Relax. It's only five after, I'm sure they got tied up somewhere." Kayumi said as she leaned back against the bench. Hades glared at her.

"You're watch is running slow. It's fifteen after." He stated. She smiled.

"Come here. Sit down. My brother and Keien will be here and this will go smoothly."

"It's just that this is the first time I've arranged anything like this. I mean, I made the lunch reservations and I don't want to waste them." Hades flopped down next to her and sighed.

"The reservations are for twelve thirty, we still have fifteen minutes to make it. Considering the restaurant is only a five minute walk from here, you shouldn't worry." Kayumi said rubbing his shoulder.

"You're right." He smiled. Kayumi smiled back. Being tense wasn't good for him. It shadowed his playful nature, bratty as it was at times. If he'd ever been mortal, Kayumi decided he must have been a little punk to his parents. One of those kids that you wanted to hug one moment and strangle the next.

"Konnichiwa!" Keien called. "Sorry we're late. There was a traffic accident on the way over."

"No one was hurt were they?" asked Kayumi remembering Meiko's accident over three months ago.

"No, it was just a fender bender." Yatsurugi assured his sister.

"Well, now that everyone is here. Why don't we go to lunch?" Hades suggested leaping off the bench. Kayumi followed more gracefully. Her long waves of purple hair were pulled back in a French braid that was nearly the length of Hades'. Hades' braid was still longer. Offering Kayumi his arm, Hades winked at her. She smiled and accepted. Keien and Yatsurugi fell into step behind the very obvious couple.

The restaurant was set on one side of a large park that sported an aquarium, a movie house, and a bicycle rental shop. The park had long bike paths that were the envy of all other parks in the area. They passed through the rock garden and entered the restaurant. After a five-minute wait, they were seated near a window that over looked the garden. A young lady with black hair and brown eyes handed them their menus and left.

"Everything looks good." Kayumi said as she studied her menu. "I'm not sure what to order."

"Take your time, we've got all day." Hades commented. Keien nodded.

"I've heard the crab here is excellent." Keien said. "Want to share?" He asked Yatsurugi eyeing him with an impish look. Yatsurugi smiled.

"Only if you share the sea cucumber with me."

"Sure."

Kayumi leaned over and whispered to Hades. "This could go better than we thought. You know they really need to get over this fear about being expressive in public."

"That wasn't my aim." Hades hissed back. "I thought it'd be good for us to go out." Kayumi shrugged but wasn't about to miss a golden opportunity. Right now, she'd behave herself, but if…

The waitress returning to take their orders interrupted her train of thought.

Lunch went fine. They talked about how long Hades had left before he had to go back to work. How school was going for both Yatsurugi and Keien. About how Haruka was holding up having two angels in her apartment during the evenings. Kayumi announced that her boss was very impressed by her cooking and she'd been given a raise. Everyone thought that was great and that she deserved it.

"Hey, my cooking is heavenly," she joked winking at Yatsurugi. He chuckled, while Keien and Hades rolled their eyes.

After lunch, they sat for a while and conversed more. The waitress brought them more tea, coffee, soda, or what ever they were drinking at the time. Hades was working on his third cup of French Vanilla, when he thought he noticed someone he knew. Staring past Yatsurugi, he tried to remember who it was.

"Hades, what are you staring at?" Kayumi asked just before she took a sip of water.

"I thought I saw someone I knew. I think I was mistaken though. I can't think of any reason they'd be here." Hades replied shrugging and pouring creamer into his coffee.

"Mortal or angel?" Yatsurugi inquired dryly.

"Angel."

"Old girlfriend?" Keien said smiling slyly. Hades shook his head.

"Nope." The conversation died there and they were forced into an uncomfortable silence until Keien suggested they pay their bill and leave. The aquarium awaited and it had been years since he last went to one.

The aquarium was roughly fifteen minutes away across the park. It took them thirty, because they were sidetracked in the rock garden. It was a peaceful, sunny day although there was a crisp wind blowing. Kayumi had her coat open, attempting to soak up as much sun as possible, while her boyfriend remained wrapped in his leather jacket.

"Don't tell me you're cold." She chided. Hades shrugged.

"Not really, the air feels pretty neutral to me."

"You should take human form, then you'll feel it." Yatsurugi commented zipping up his coat just as another strong gust wound its way by them.

"Maybe some other time." Hades said. Keien coughed and restrained himself from making some off hand remark about being "chicken" to the angel of death. Beside him Yatsurugi snickered, obviously he'd been listening.

There was a small crowd of people milling about in front of the aquarium entrance. Couples, families, school children, teenagers, and elderly people were out in force today taking advantage of the nice weather. Hades led the way with Kayumi, Keien and Yatsurugi in tow. Once they were inside, they breathed a sigh of relief. About them were tanks of multicolored fish.

Keien took Yatsurugi by the sleeve and took the lead as they walked into the building. He stopped by a large tank that was as tall as he was. Inside were fish native to the waters around southern Japan. They watched them swim in and out of the kelp and rocks provided for them to hide in. The fish were mesmerizing to watch and it was several minutes before either he or Yatsurugi could look away. Keien occupied himself with reading the plaque next to the tank regarding the fish. Yatsurugi did the same, but looked up after a moment.

"Um, Keien."

"Hai."

"Where are Hades and my sister?" Keien glanced up and realized that Kayumi and Hades were no longer standing next to them.

"I don't know."

"Oh, great. My sister and her new beau have ditched us." Yatsurugi complained. Keien appeared a bit shocked.

"That's okay. As long as we've been ditched together."

"I can't believe she did this. We better find them." Yatsurugi grumbled.

"You mean you don't want to be alone with me?" he inquired. Yatsurugi stared at him wide-eyed.

"No…I didn't mean for it to sound like that." He swallowed as he looked into Keien's hurt eyes. "Keien, I'm sorry. I do want to spend time with you, but I'm afraid this is one of Kayumi's stunts."

"I understand." Keien said softly.

"Keien," he paused. "I'm sure they're still in the building. We'll catch up with them later." Keien smiled.

"Good. Now we can continue on with our date, uninterrupted." With that, he took Yatsurugi's hand in his and they walked to the next exhibit.

"Honestly, you'd think they'd have figured out we left them earlier." Kayumi grumbled. Hades touched her cheek gently.

"They noticed it eventually. Let's leave them be. In the mean time, as long as we're invisible let's take advantage of it." Kayumi's blue eyes sparkled as she leaned forward to kiss him.

"Now you can't say this afternoon was a complete waste of your time now can you?" Kayumi asked her brother as they all walked towards the bus stop. Yatsurugi smiled.

"No, I can't. Even if you and Hades did disappear for an hour."

"We were still in the aquarium." Kayumi stated firmly. "Besides, I'm sure you took advantage of our absence." Yatsurugi's cheeks flushed slightly before he flipped a stray lock hair over his shoulder. Behind the siblings, Keien and Hades were conversing politely.

"I had a nice time. This was a good idea." Keien told the angel. Hades' ebony braid bobbed as he nodded his head.

"Thanks. You'll have to do this more often."

"Me?"

"Yeah. From what I gather from Kayumi, Eros and Psyche, Yatsurugi is bad at this sort of stuff. Apparently he and his last boyfriend never went out on dates anywhere. It seems they didn't do much, not even passionately kissing. You may have to be the aggressor in this relationship if you ever want to go out again."

"The aggressor? Me? I'm not really good at that. Suiichiro was the dominant personality in our relationship. He'd drag me to the most God awful nightclubs and insist that I have a good time." Keien replied.

"Did you?"

"Well, yeah, sometimes. Not every time."

"Just remember that Yatsurugi has practically been everywhere you have and work from that. Whatever you didn't like, probably won't interest him either." Hades advised, adopting a professor like posture. He looked as if he were about to lecture Keien on physics.

"Hey, what are you two talking about?" demanded Kayumi peering over her shoulder.

"Just stuff." Hades replied.

"Uh, huh."

Keien walked up and draped his across Yatsurugi's shoulder.

"We were saying how nice it's been today. Now we better hurry or we'll miss our bus." Keien told them grinning like a fox. Yatsurugi smiled back. He couldn't help it. When Keien was happy, Yatsurugi was happy too.

"Whatever." Kayumi said throwing her hands into the air.

Suddenly Yatsurugi stopped dead.

"Yatsurugi, are you okay?" Keien asked halting mid-stride. Yatsurugi just stared straight ahead of him. Keien followed his boyfriend's line of sight to the object that had caught his attention. Standing in front of a water fountain was a tall ethereal looking man. His hair was pale blond and his skin was bronze in hue. The clothes he wore were obviously designer, but Keien couldn't identify whom. Not that he'd been good at that sort of thing anyway.

The man noticed them and stared back. It seemed that he was only looking at Yatsurugi though. A cold chill crept up Keien's neck as a knot began to form in his stomach. He heard Kayumi whisper something behind him.

"Oh, my God. What is he doing here?" she hissed. Keien turned towards her.

"Who is he?"

"Azreal." Hades replied. "The archangel of Life and Death." Keien suddenly didn't feel comforted that he knew the name. Instead, he felt the knot in his stomach tighten.

"Is he?" Keien asked.

"My ex-boyfriend." Yatsurugi replied in a hushed voice.