He did love having Az around. He really liked Az.
Like,likedliked Az. A lot.
God, he felt like one of his teenage students, thinking like that—stupid and silly and crazy and maybe… maybe falling a little bit in love.
With a demon. Which was a problem. Obviously.
“Yo, Mr. C, you alright?” Lexi asked.
Az looked over at him, and Gabe shook himself off, saying, “Yes, Lexi. So, tell me about what your group has worked on so far.”
And so the period passed, slowly, with both he and Az helping the kids, before finally the bell rang for lunch. Gabe felt nervous and excited and just generally weird to be alone with Az. He wasn’t even sure he could eat; his stomach was fluttering and in knots at the same time, which was stupid, because Az was the same Az that he’d been this morning.
Only this morning Gabe hadn’t realized how much he liked him.
Az walked over, putting his hand on Gabe’s shoulder, squeezing gently. He realized how often Az did that; he initiated contact all the time, even in a completely nonsexual way. It made Gabe feel… cherished. It made the sexual contact all that much easier, too. He was comfortable with Az.
“You alright?” Az asked, gently rubbing his shoulder. “You seem tense.”
“Yeah. I guess I was just thinking about… umm… well, stuff that we talked about,” Gabe mumbled. Should he tell Az he liked him? That seemed sort of… high school-ish. He almost chuckled. He was, after all, in a high school. Sometimes he thought that the teenage drama mindset rubbed off on him a wee bit.
“Your parents?” Az asked, and it took Gabe a full minute of blankness before he even knew what Az was asking about.
“Oh, yeah, I said I wished I knew where my parents were the other night,” Gabe remembered.
“Yes, well, I found out for you,” Az replied, leading him over to his chair and gently pushing him into it. “It’s good, so don’t worry.”
Gabe was speechless. Utterly, completely speechless. Az had found out about his parents?
“They’re in Limbo, apparently, which is not at all a bad place. It’s more a resting place for those who don’t know where they want to go in the afterlife. It’s also quite the party place, but apparently they aren’t big party people,” Az reported.
“They’re together,” he continued. “They enjoy the libraries the most, and they keep to themselves, but word is that they’re very happy. I thought it might make you feel better to know that.”
Gabe looked up at him. Az was gently smiling down at him with a look of fondness.
Without thinking, Gabe reached up, grabbed Az’s face, and kissed him on the mouth. Az looked shocked but pleased when Gabe let him go.
“Thank you, Az,” Gabe smiled.
Az smiled back, looking proud of himself, and Gabe realized he was definitely in trouble. He really did like Az, maybe more than he’d ever liked anyone before, and he had no idea what he was going to do when it was time for Az to leave.
Chapter16
Asmodeus
By Friday afternoon, Az needed a good soak in some hot springs to recover from a week of teenagers. He really didn’t know how Gabe did it. Since there were no hot springs, however, he had settled for soaking in Gabe’s tub. It hadn’t proven nearly as satisfactory, though, especially since Gabe hadn’t taken the subtle hints to join him, so he’d finished up and headed into the living room.
When he got to the doorway, he saw Gabe kneeling in front of Beel’s aquarium. He didn’t exactly mean to listen in without Gabe knowing, but at first he just thought it was cute that Gabe was talking to Beel. Then he’d realized Gabe was talking about him, and he hadn’t been able to help himself.
“So, umm, I really don’t know who to go to for advice. Mike and Ser wouldn’t understand, and I’m definitely NOT talking about this with Grams. Nope. Definitely not. Az is in the tub. I probably could have joined him, but, ugh, I felt a little shy about that. Although he probably would have welcomed that,” Gabe muttered out. Beel was just staring at him.
“So I need some advice. Maybe you could ribbit once for yes, and twice for no?” Gabe asked.
Beel just continued to stare at him.
“What, you want me to keep pretending you’re just Mr. Frog?” he laughed.
Beel ribbitted once in reply.
