He isn't here! He must be on the main beach! This in mind Haniel ran through the night, searching the waves. The sound of weeping reached his ears, and he stared down long and hard at the crumpled form of Dagiel. He was currently slumped against a rock in the water. He didn’t notice Haniel, sobbing into his folded arms in the same spot that used to bring such joy ten years prior. 

The same spot he usually sat to smile and laugh as he played with dolphins and otter pups, waving around a new starfish he’d just created or weaving sea shells into his then short hair. Overcome with emotion Haniel cried out to the winding waves and harsh, biting winds. His body vanished in a flood of dark purple light. Dag looked up as he watched this happen, wiping his tears away as an otter, Blippu, climbed onto his head. “H-Haniel?”

Haniel, still a glowing purple silhouette, looked down at Dagiel, his formless mouth smiling, “I can finally admit it out loud Dag, I love you. You hear that God? I LOVE DAGIEL!!” A massive explosion ripped through the night air, Dagiel shielding himself and the otter that considered him it’s mother from the force of the waves bashing into them. 

He reached out to hang on to the rocks as the water shook violently, threatening to pull him under. Water spraying into his face he opened his eyes to look for Haniel. “H-H-hani…? Is that you?” He asked quietly as the nude, long purple haired angel brushed his hair away from his own dark red eyes. 

Haniel rose up from his kneeling position as the power had knocked him back. “Y-yea…the one and only, my little starfish…” He looked down at Dagiel with a warm smile filled with all his pent-up love and affection. 

“You reached your realization point at last!” Dagiel swam in happy circles and the otter waved a shell around and cheered in joy as well. He looked at Haniel with a bright grin. 

“My, what?” Haniel asked as he walked into the waves, as he did so his legs changed into a dark purple tail, red swirls emblazoned on it in the shape of seashells. Dag lifted his own tail to point at the starfish designs. 

“Your realization point, recall when you asked me had I gone through what Luci had? I did, when I realized that I… I… I’ll just come out and say it already, that I, don’t love you, ten years ago, that’s called a realization point, when you realize that this world is about more than just blind work and death for God. When you open your heart, when you…”

 “Dag, Dag I love you so so so so very much…” he pulled Dagiel into his arms at long last, kissing him as the two former otter pups swam around them. 

The otters looked more like aquatic wolves now as they swam around the two, Dagiel pulled away “I just told you Haniel...” He pulled away from him fully and tried to put distance between them both, “I do not love you, I love Salsa, I am trying to mourn his death, but you are doing nothing but making it hard, harder on me than it needs to be” 

He looked away, away from the heartbreak on Haniel’s face, the sadness that he knew blossomed on his best friend’s expression. He tried to change the subject, “I found some other orphaned otter pups, the other two didn’t have names so I named these five, Kelppu.” He held up a wiggling otter that looked more like the end of a mop of seaweed it was so fluffy. “Keepu” he chuckled nervously, not looking at Haniel, he wanted anything to get away from the uncomfortable subject.

 He then waved around an otter pup  that was hanging onto a shell and trying to grab the other shell in his free hand for itself. “Nappu” he pointed at an otter pup that was asleep on the rocks.  

“Happu” He pointed at the otter that had climbed onto his head that was happily clapping. He then reached into the water to pull out an otter that blipped by them like some kind of signal light. “And this is the youngest, Blippu.” Haniel chuckled, petting them, he didn’t even realize he was crying. The otters cheered and they all hugged one another happily and spent the rest of the night into the day playing in the water. 

Once the otters were out floating asleep near an outcropping away from their normal rock hang out, Haniel began to kiss along Dag’s neck, grabbing his hands to pull him against his chest. 

“Haniel...” Dagiel was filled with disbelief, he sighed and realized that Haniel would not be sated until he allowed this, he had already had experiences with Salsa, in the depths of the ocean waves. He loved Salsa, his everything belonged to Salsa, he knew that whatever he gave over to Haniel would be nothing, would mean nothing, this was pity. 

He felt sorry for his best friend and wrapped his arms around him, he would give him this last thing before he decided he would end their friendship once and for all. Haniel kissed Dagiel deeply, the merangel changing his tail to legs with a reluctant, forced smile into the kiss. 

NSFW SCENE ONLY ON PATREON!!!

The next night would find the pair, one in a troubled slumber, the other filled with a deluded smile. But for now, they laid against the rocks, staring at one another blankly.

“But…l love you Dagiel, I love you…” They stared at each other, Haniel with a look of pleasure, unavoidable by this point, mixed with despair and heartbreak, Dagiel with his bottom lip sucked into his mouth, looking away, shame for sleeping with his friend washing over him. Haniel moved to hug him tight, desperately, clinging.

"I don't love you Haniel. I really don’t." Dagiel pushed him off roughly and jumped into the water, quickly swam away.

Raziel was walking past the rocks, he sat there the other night, hearing the sounds of Haniel and Dagiel’s love making, or lack thereof. He frowned; he’d eaten from the god tree but it had taken Salsa’s death for him to reach his realization point fully. He’d half awakened, the night they made love beneath the waves seven years ago. He sat and listened to the sounds the two made, remembering.

NSFW SCENE ONLY ON PATREON!

That had been the happiest night of his life, even though he knew by now that Salsa was only using him. He just wished he could have told Salsa how he felt then, he still didn’t understand why he waited so long to admit his feelings. He frowned as he continued to walk, he came across Asta, who was sitting with Maze asleep against his shoulder. The angry looking angel glared at Raz. “Come here Raziel.” He called out, waving him over.

“Yea?” Raziel asked this as he walked over and sat down across from them.

“You reached your realization point fully I see. I didn’t think that it was Salsa you liked man, I’m really sorry about what happened.”

Raziel frowned deeply, “I loved him a lot, he was a really great guy, even if he was talking about Dagiel and not me, or whoever, I still, I still love him. Always making fruit candies for everyone, you remember the time he tried to feed some to a bear?” he chuckled sadly.

“Oh, yea I remember that, he walked over to the bear like, ‘Hey Mr. bear, could you stop eating my friends? Here! Have some fruit candy!’ He then tried to feed the candy to the bear and ended up running to hide behind Dagiel screaming when it roared at him.” Asta smiled at Raziel, he reached out to pet his shoulder.

“Everything will be ok I guess; I hope to find out where Salsa's soul went one day… I’ll find him and finally be able to at least tell his soul how I feel. So, you and Maze huh?” Raziel commented on this as he looked at the two. Asta wrapped his arms around Maze’s shoulders and pulled the sleeping form close.

“We reached our realization points a long time ago, we were one of the first pair of Axia ya know? Though we were loath to be near that slut Gabriel when his group arrived years later.” It was then that, Gabriel, who just so happened to be walking past, yelled at Asta angrily.

“Shut the fuck up Asta, you’re always meaner than a dog with a thorn in its paw!”

“Not my fault you're a lower region groping slutty twat Gabriel!” Asta was a mean-spirited person and he took every chance to make Gabriel look like a fool.

“I fucking hate all of you!” Gabriel stormed off and Raziel laughed as he watched him go.

“This was priceless I swear you’re a hoot Asta.” he sat down next to the blue haired man who chuckled and poked him in the side of the head.

“We gotta have a little fun around here in these dark times sometime.” They both nodded at this, Maze still steadily asleep against Asta’s side. Little did they know that things would only get worse, and nothing was going to change the outcome. There was nothing anyone could do to stop what was coming.