Reta took a few moments to gather what little she knew about the Fallen. There wasn’t much to collect, for they were little more than a story wrapped up inside a myth. In a somewhat ironic twist, her brief and youthful interest in the religions of mankind gave her more material about the fallen, even though the humans considered them to be the embodiment of evil. After all, they asked, how pious can a being who gives up their divinity truly be? But where the humans painted the first Fallen - Samael - as a seducer and destroyer, the Amaranthine stories mention only a passion that surpassed divinity.

Reta could see Gabe - no, his borrowed name was Gabriel - withdrawing at her surprise. Did that fool think she was afraid of him now? As if all the secrets they shared meant nothing because he had Fallen. She really didn’t understand men. “So, what was her name?”

Gabriel blinked a few times. Reta could almost hear the gears in his head grinding. Then he gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “You’ll think me daft, and you won’t be wrong. I never asked for her name,” he confided with a shake of his head.

Reta could only gawk in dismay at his confession. “OK. This is a story I really need to hear.” She looked down at their now-empty glasses, and motioned to the door. “Let’s go for a walk, I know a great place. Tomorrow is a day of rest, and I really, really want to hear this.”

After paying, they decided to walk to the trailhead. It wasn’t far, and she didn’t have to hide herself from Gabriel. She switched up to a lope, which looked a bit like skipping in her human form. Gabriel matched her new speed, his long-legged gait effortlessly eating up the distance. Reta laughed, her smile huge. Running with him was going to be fun.

They slowed as they reached the trail head, but only because she wanted him to tell his story. They could - would - run again later. But Gabriel surprised her by clasping a hand on her shoulder, bringing her to a halt and turning her towards him. “I want you to remember me,” he said, his expression serious. His hand moved to her jaw, and he slowly pulled her into a kiss. This was good too; Reta wanted to know what Gabriel tasted like.

Neither of them wasted time with a simple meeting of lips, both of them opening their mouths to let the other in. Her tongue darted, his tongue moved with deliberation. It was an impromptu dance, and it was over after only a handful of heartbeats. Reta would have lingered longer, but she could feel something shift between them, and she really wanted to see what that shift meant.

Some part of Reta’s brain noted that she really needed to practice another shocked face. She was gawping again, her lower jaw slack. But... “I can see you,” was all she could say, in awe. She had never noticed it before, but somehow she had never really seen him. Looking back, he had been just another person, and their interactions had only mattered to her while they were together, he had never stuck in her memory before. Somehow, she knew that wouldn’t be the case any longer.

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He was beautiful. His hair was golden, a shade too radiant to be called just blonde. The bones in his face were pronounced, but they didn’t make him look hard. His blue eyes glittered with contained humor, but he remained silent and let her look to her fill. He must have been just under six feet tall, since it looked like she could tuck herself right under his chin. She decided to test that feature, and rested her ear on his chest. “Why couldn’t I see you before? I feel like you just let me inside your wards.”

His voice rumbled under her ear, “Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what I just did. It’s... one of the conditions for remaining here: I can’t interfere with the Plan. And since I’m not Him, I can’t tell what actions would interfere. So, the less I influence others, the fewer chances I have to interfere.”

“So, what you’re saying is that I’m not important to the Plan?” she teased him, earning herself a tap on the nose. “You know, that’s really annoying...” A chuckle vibrated his chest, and she thought she liked it. But she was owed a story, and this wasn’t a position conducive to listening to a full story. It would be too simple to lapse into silence and listen to the beat of his heart.

She broke away, and pointed at the trail. As they started walking, she prompted him to start, “So, you never bothered to learn her name?”

It turned out that Gabriel’s first love, the one that prompted him to give up everything that he had known, was little more than puppy love. He had come across the woman in his role as a guardian, a combination of immortal wistfulness and a touch of lust prompting Gabriel to make a pact with Him. The woman had turned him down flat, as she could see no value in a man who owned no land, husbanded no animals, had nothing of value.

Reta guessed that such an innocent and impulsive act was something to be expected from a being who had never been mortal; who had spent an untold number of eons doing tasks beyond a mortal’s ken. That Gabriel had persisted, had taken his newfound quasi-mortality and made his way through time to be here with her, impressed her. “Were you given the chance to go back?” she asked, curious how long Gabriel could, or would, remain in this world.

“I was. If I reclaim my name, I would also reclaim my old purpose and divinity along with it. But...” he stopped walking as his words also trailed off, and looked up to the night sky. “I don’t want to leave. This world is too full of life. For me, the allure of what I have now is too much to give up.” His eyes moved to Reta’s for that last bit. She couldn’t help the blush that crawled along her cheeks.

Her retaliation for making her blush was a quick peck of her lips on his cheek, and a ‘let’s run’ look. She changed into the form of a large doe as she turned away, and she immediately bounded off into the forest. Perhaps it wasn’t the best retaliation she had ever come up with, but she had been right. Gabriel was fun to run with.