POV BETTY
"You wished to become a god; and so you are:I gave you knowledge,and its fruit isdistrust."— Madách —
Of course I was late. Azazel was already waiting for me in front of the sports field.
Although I was tired after cycling, I had ridden so fast that from quite a distance away I was already examining Azazel very thoroughly. I wasn't too tired for that.
This time I didn't feel his essence. I was too absorbed in observing his appearance.
The only strange thing about him was that he looked too normal. I think nobody except him wore a basketball jersey at the basketball court. Everyone else came here to shoot hoops in simple shorts, T-shirts, and sneakers.
I smiled.
As if he had sensed the warm thoughts flowing toward him, he looked at me. Only now had he noticed my approach.
He waved at me.
I headed toward the bicycle racks.
Azazel didn't wait for me to lock up my bike. I was still fussing with the security lock when I felt him approaching. I knew exactly how close he already was, but I still looked back to verify my intuition.
"Whoa!"
Seriously. He was exactly as close as I had sensed.
Of course, earlier, when I lowered my head to click the lock onto my bike, a strand of hair had fallen into my face again. And I had pinned it back so carefully at home!
With a half-smile, playfully, I tilted my head slightly. Just enough to move the irritating strand away from my left eye.
I could feel what Azazel wanted to do to me right now.
"Whoa!"
I held his gaze.
Oh, how human he seemed when he mirrored my movement with that faint smile.
Psychology had always fascinated me. I knew exactly what this meant.
He gently brushed the strand away from my face. He didn't lean closer to greet me with a kiss because a group of teenagers had just passed by us.
It was enough that while making the tender gesture, he looked at my lips.
Now he took my hand while avoiding my gaze. Perhaps he instinctively sensed how vulnerable I was at that moment, and how much I longed for him. And if he had seen all that, there would have been no turning back for us. Not today either.
Or perhaps he didn't want me to see all of that in his eyes.
It was unnecessary. I didn't merely know it.
I felt it.
If we had looked into each other's eyes now, I would have demanded the right to lean against him. Just as though it were an innocent, friendly greeting. With closed eyes, so passersby wouldn't notice anything more.
If we had merely caught each other's gaze in passing, even then this afternoon would have turned out differently.
"We can go," I declared quietly after checking once more that my bike lock was securely fastened.
Again, I looked not at Azazel but toward the sports field. My eyes caught on a fiery red-haired punk boy, toward whom a girl with an equally unusual hairstyle was approaching. They waved cheerfully at one another.
Until today, I had never even noticed what strange couples came here to exercise.
Azazel and I were the most ordinary of them all.
Then Lucifer came to mind. Ever since I had spoken with Uriel, the angel, and learned that Azazel only wanted to use me for Satan's plan...
How could I even have thought of Azazel and myself as a couple for a single moment since then?
"May the Devil take Lucifer," I thought.
Of course, involuntarily, I grinned mischievously as I analyzed exactly what I had just wished upon the Devil.
Naturally, Azazel noticed the insolent smile. I had to explain it to the guardian who held my hand as we walked toward the sports field as though Lucifer didn't exist at all.
"You're not going to use your strange abilities against me on the court, are you?" I suddenly asked the first question that seemed cheeky enough and came to mind.
I had long been curious about what unusual abilities Azazel possessed.
He looked at me seriously, but I could feel he almost laughed because of my question. Nothing in his expression suggested he found it amusing. Yet once again, I felt his mood.
"My only unusual ability is that I possess more knowledge about the world than human beings do. I cannot use that against you on the sports field."
"Mhm. I know that from the apocryphal writings," I admitted quickly.
This was an uncomfortable topic for him.
"Well, then you also know what people accuse us of," he noted reluctantly.
I did know. And seeing his wounded expression, I laughed.
"There's more to it than that," I escalated Azazel's dramatic mood. "I've seen a few films about you too, where..."
It wasn't kind, but seeing the pained look on his face, I laughed again before continuing.
"If Celestine hadn't invited me to her pub this afternoon, we could watch some of those together."
I hoped he understood that I wasn't influenced by what he had been portrayed as for ten thousand years.
"Why couldn't that be tomorrow afternoon's program?" he asked kindly.
Ohh! Unfortunately, he didn't suggest an evening movie date.
At the same time, I remembered that I had promised Celestine—promised her that I would come to the pub with Azazel. It had seemed entirely natural that I used the plural.
"Celestine invited you too," I shifted the responsibility onto someone else.
Yes, that's what I did, even though instead I could simply have asked whether he wanted to come with me to Celestine's.
Again, I was confronted with how obvious it had become to me that Azazel and I were a couple.
And that confused me.
"I'd be happy to go to Celestine's with you," he replied.
He noticed none of my dilemma and wasn't confused in the slightest.
Maybe he was even glad to be getting to know me and that everything was proceeding according to the Devil's plans.
"May the Devil take Lucifer," I thought now much more defiantly.
And naturally, I wished Uriel, the angel, to the bottom of Hell too.
"Wonderful," I declared aloud firmly.
There was nothing strange about it. Azazel thought I was responding to the fact that he would also come to Celestine's.
But what I had actually stated aloud was the realization that, for me, Azazel was not merely a task.