It was late when Gavrael stuck his key in the lock, and the apartment was dark when he entered. He closed the door softly behind him, and made his way across the loungeroom without turning on the light, letting the moonlight from the windows guide him.

Soft, deep breathing issued from the direction of the sofa, and Gavrael stopped, halfway across the room. He turned and made his way towards the sofa. A person-shaped lump took up the bulk of the seat. In the darkness, he could not make out the face, but moonlight gleamed off long, dark hair streaked with silver. Hanael.

He remembered Hanael clearly from his trip to Japan - remembered knocking on the door to Raziel and Zafkiel's place and having this strange scarred man answer it, entirely unsurprised by his arrival. "Ah, you must be Gavrael," he had said, as if he had been expected.

Gavrael hadn't known what to say then, and he didn't now. He had understood, to some degree, why Hanael had been living with them in Japan. But why was Hanael here now?

He shook his head, and turned away. As he made his way down the hall, he noticed that the door to the study was closed. He wondered if Kael was back before him. Zafkiel and Mikael's door was also shut, but the door to the room he shared with Raziel was open a few inches, and soft light shone out.

He pushed open the door quietly and peered inside. The bedside lamp was on, giving the room a dim, golden glow. In the bed, Raziel was curled up on his side, sound asleep, the sheet gathered loosely about his waist. His eyes were scrunched tightly shut, as if trying to block out the light. He was bare-chested, his arms spread at awkward angles, and one of his hands clung loosely to a book.

For a long moment, Gavrael simply stood in the doorway, looking at him. Then he walked into the room, shutting the door softly behind him. He stopped to take off his shoes, and put away his wallet and keys, and then he sat down on the bed.

He leaned over and pried the book from Raziel's hand - another one of those science fiction manga he seemed to love so much. Gavrael looked at the dark, sketchy artwork for a moment, before discarding the comic on the bedside table.

He climbed across the bed until he was kneeling over Raziel. For another long moment, he simply admired the view. In sleep, Raziel looked even younger and more innocent than he did waking. He was all at odds - his piercings, his tattoo, his spiky blue hair - but then his pudgy cheeks, babydoll lips and long, girlish eyelashes. It was one of the things Gavrael liked most about him, how everything was contrary. Raziel always knew how to surprise you. It kept him on his toes.

He leaned over and shook the boy's shoulder. Raziel's forehead creased, and he took a deep, long breath, but didn't wake up.

"Oi." Gavrael shook him a little harder. Raziel mumbled something in his sleep and half-rolled away from him. "Oi. Brathead." Gavrael gave him a decent shaking.

Raziel's eyes blinked open, sudden and wide, and he sat up, clutching the sheet to his chest. For a moment he stared at Gavrael with stunned eyes, as if he didn't even know who he was. With his stunned look, gaping mouth, and the way his hair was flat on one side of his head from the pillow and standing up in crazy tufts on the other side he looked just a little insane.

Then his eyes seemed to take Gavrael in properly, and his expression relaxed.

"You scared the hell out of me," he said, and Gavrael heard the embarrassed laughter in his voice. He sat back on his heels.

"What'd you think I was, the closet boogeyman?" he asked, and Raziel grinned that little impish grin of his.

"You never know."

"Uh-huh."

They looked at each other, smirking. Then Raziel was suddenly clinging to him, arms around his waist, head pressed against his chest.

"cyou're home." The soft voice mumbled against his stomach, breath warming him through his shirt.

He reached out and put his arms around Raziel, his hands relearning the smooth milkiness of his bare back.

"You said you'd be back about now," he said.

"We got in this afternoon."

"Then I timed it just right."

Raziel looked up at him, his big, deep eyes made almost black by the dimness of the room.

"I was just starting to feel lonely, being in this big bed all by myself..."

Gavrael met his gaze head-on, remembering their little spat before he'd left Japan. He wasn't going to apologise for being late. But then Raziel grinned at him.

"cso you timed it perfect."

He grinned back, feeling comfortable now that they were on familiar ground. It was so easy to be with this boy, easier than anything else had ever been in his life. He could settle into it so quickly that it was almost as if the five months had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Except for the stranger sleeping on their sofa.

"I notice the sofa is taken again. And not by Kael."

Raziel smirked at that, looking away, then back again. He shook his head, just a little bit, as if to say he'd played no part in it.

"We have a few extra guests."

Guests. That meant more than one. Gavrael remembered the prissy teenaged boy with the girly curls who'd also been staying with them. Did that mean he'd followed them here, too? What was it about Zafkiel and people following him home from Japan?

"Is Mikael fuming?" he asked aloud.

"Yup," said Raziel, and looked up at him again, eyes sparkling even in the dimness.

"Good. That makes my day complete." If it pissed Mikael off, then he figured he could even put up with that Rafariel kid's snotty attitude. And Hanael was too unobtrusive to be an annoyance.

Raziel just sat there, looking up at him, and Gavrael stared back, appreciating the sight of him after so long - his familiar face, his crazy-silly hair, his pouty lips, his bare skin, his lean shoulders, his scrawny chest.

"C'mere, brat, you've been gone too long." Gavrael grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back down onto the bed, landing on top of him with their faces only inches apart. Raziel let out a short, surprised "murf!" sound, but his lips were curved into a wicked grin, and then Gavrael's lips silenced his with a kiss.