Raziel's POV

"Raz!" Kai exclaims, jumping on me. His soft lips brush, ever so lightly over my eyelids before I feel them brush against my lips.

Despite the fact that my head feels like someone is taking a sledgehammer to my skull, his actions result in a slight quirk of my mouth.

"I'm up," I murmur, pulling him towards me and wrapping him in my arms. My eyes flutter open, squinting against the blinding light. It takes a few seconds for them to adjust but when they do, Kai's piercing, sky-blue eyes are staring back at me, and a wide smile spreads across my face. "Hello, my beautiful human."

Kai beams and releases the cutest little giggle before pressing his lips to mine. He, however, doesn't deepen the kiss like I hope and quickly pulls away. "You taste like beer." The most adorable pout forms on his face, and he giggles when I nuzzle into his neck.

"Let's just stay in bed. Kai my head feels like it's going to explode," I whine, snuggling closer to him. Kai giggles harder and rubs soothing circles on my back.

"I think you have a hangover."

"The party and the drinking was fun, but I don't like this headache, take it away," I say, enjoying Kai's refreshing hint of vanilla and petrichor, after it rains, smell.

Kai presses a kiss to the top of my head and whispers, "I'll make you something to eat. Food should help."

Right on cue, my stomach rumbles, causing a string of amused giggles to escape Kai. He kisses my forehead and wriggles out of my embrace, and I drag myself out of bed and into the shower, catching a glimpse of the time on the way.

My eyes widen when I notice that the clock says that it's two thirty in the afternoon. A warm, fuzzy feeling spreads over me when I realise that Kai let me sleep for the entire morning. He really is the best mate I could have ever wished for.

By the time I'm showered and dressed, the pounding in my head is reduced to a persistent knocking.

Kai returns to my room with breakfast, and he sets it on the bed before climbing under the duvet. I grin as I gaze at my adorable human. The only things that can be seen above the blanket are his eyes and his fluffy, pink hair.

I crawl into bed next to him and pull down the duvet so I can capture his lips with mine. He readily obliges and eagerly pounces on my lips, releasing a soft moan as his dainty hands slip under my shirt to caress my abs.

Much to my displeasure, we are interrupted by a loud rumble from my stomach. Kai giggles and replaces his lips with a forkful of eggs. The delightful food melts in my mouth and is enough to distract me from my earlier displeasure.

Kai and I eat the food he made, which consists of eggs, toast, watermelon and berry smoothies, while I give Kai a detailed account of the game King's Cup which I played with some senior students at the party last night. I really did have a lot of fun and would be willing to go to another party once I forget how much my head hurts.

When we're finished eating, we wash the dishes, then Kai and I snuggle in his bed, giggling and chatting about the silliest things.

"Kai," I murmur against his hair sometime later. He hums a response and I continue, "I heard you talking to Declan yesterday, and you sounded upset that I didn't tell you why I was banished."

His head snaps towards me so fast I thought it might break his neck. "Are you going to tell me now?"

I nod, and Kai's face lights up. I decide to leave out the part about how Kai's voice startled me because it's irrelevant to the story. I'm the only one who knows this was the case, and there is no benefit in upsetting him. Kai's kindness knows no bounds, and if I tell him about that part, he will simply blame himself when that is the last thing I want. What happened was completely my fault, and it's about time I fully own my mistake.

I take a deep breath and start. "For as long as I can remember, I've been training to be the head warrior of Heaven. It was my father's position before mine, and he was adamant that I do everything to achieve it. I was subjected to even the most cruel training, and pulling pranks or snooping where I shouldn't have been snooping became something I did to blow off steam. It didn't help that I was rarely punished for anything that I did, first because my father was a prominent and respected angel, and then because I was excellent at my job."

My human is caressing my cheek and his eyes are focused on mine, soaking up everything I'm telling him while my heart thumps unusually loudly as a part of me worries about how Kai will react.

"My pranks were mostly harmless. They didn't cause permanent damage or pain to any creature, until one day when I broke into a room I wasn't supposed to be in. While there, I accidentally spilled a drop of liquid onto an earth replica which caused a plague on earth. It killed 1,023 humans, and that was the reason God banished me." I hold my breath as I wait for Kai to reply.

For the first time in my very long life, I'm worried about what someone else will think of me. I'm terrified that Kai will think of me as a monster and won't want to be my mate any longer. I'm scared that all he'll see is the loss of those innocent lives whenever he looks at me, and that over time, this will turn into resentment.

"What happened to all the people that died?" His voice is sad but there's no hate in his eyes, and his hand still strokes my cheek.

"I don't know as much as I should about humans' afterlife, but I know that God wouldn't unjustly send them to Hell if their potential for good on earth was cut short."

I was certain that the souls of those humans would find peace or had already found peace. I was also sure that God would have found a way to alleviate the suffering of any family or friends which they might have left on earth since He would never let the humans suffer for a mistake made by one of His angels.

Kai is silent for a moment, and that silence seems to drag on forever. My only comfort in this deafening silence is that he hasn't pushed me away; he is still safely tucked in my arms.

"Do you regret that all those people died?" Kai's voice is barely above a whisper, and his sky-blue eyes search mine.

"I do. Earth and humans are so much more than I gave them credit for. Sure they can be vicious and cruel but some are kind and forgiving and will do anything to help someone without expecting anything in return." I smile and caress my human's cheek, staring into his eyes. If even one of those humans was half as good a person as Kai, I did them a huge disservice and robbed the world of a kind soul. "I really do regret it and I won't take human life for granted again."

My heart races and I hold my breath. The distant sound of a clock ticks, and I can see the gears turning in Kai's head. After what seems like an eternity, he sucks in a shaky breath and smiles. "I believe you, Raz." I release the breath that I'm holding, and he continues. "It wouldn't be fair for me to judge you too harshly for your past actions. What's important is how you move on from here and how you act in the future." He presses a kiss to my forehead before pecking my lips, and the crushing weight on my chest dissipates. "Thank you for telling me why you were banished." 

I squeeze Kai close to my chest, happy that he didn't push me away, and we lie in silence for a while.

"What did you do in the morning? You let me sleep for half the day," I say sometime later.

"I volunteered at the soup kitchen. Milan wasn't there, but I still had fun," he replies, proceeding to tell me all the details about what he did and the people he met. As I listen to him talk and watch the joy on his face, I know that there's nothing I wouldn't do to see this beautiful smile of his.

I also realise that I need to be better. Kai is always so forgiving and kind; he doesn't deserve a grump who dislikes his species for a mate, so I'll try to be better. I'll try to be the mate he deserves because I love him with all my heart.

Once he eventually stops talking about volunteering, he tells me about Declan's confession, and I tell him that I found a way to stop Lance from suffering the fate of a hollow.

"So you're going to Hell with Zorander? Will it be scary? Are you going to get hurt?"

"Yes, that's the plan. It could be scary depending on how you look at it, and I shouldn't get hurt too badly because Zorander will suck me into his being and take me with him when he goes to Hell."

Kai frowns at my response, and I smooth the creases between his eyebrows with my thumb before saying, "I should heal from any pain that will be inflicted in Hell, so don't worry."

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth, it could take me a really long time to fully recover, but I've also come to care about the little cartoon mouse of a human soul, and I don't think I can watch Lance fade into nothingness without even trying to help him.

"Don't worry!" I say again since Kai doesn't look convinced by my earlier statement. He continues to sulk so I kiss his adorable face until I hear those delightful giggles of his that I love so much.

"Just be careful."

I smile, sincerely touched by his concern. "I will, I promise." 

Thank you for reading! ❤

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