Defenceless

[Blue Alphonse]

So I've had this really simple scenelet floating around in my head for months now (ever since themajoritylied's first guardian angel drawing back in August - I may not be original, but at least I plagiarise from the best), and only now have I finally got round to hammering it out.

Disclaimer: I should apologise in advance for the excessive number of words and the relative lack of, er, content. Also, this is my very first attempt at anything like this, so I beg your indulgence throughout.

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The rain hammered the streets as though trying to shatter the flagstones.

The clouds had finally burst around noon, the day going straight from oppressive, suffocating heat to a torrential downpour in a matter of seconds. It had fallen throughout the day without abating, continued into the evening, and now, with midnight well past, there was still no sign of respite. It cascaded across roofs and ran in rivers four inches deep down the streets, forcing the citizens into their homes until the worst had passed.

No one but the most foolhardy or idiotic would be out on a night like this. The braziers that normally lit the streets were long extinguished, leaving the city bathed only in the shimmering light of the full moon overhead. The watchmen who normally patrolled the streets huddled under eaves and buttress, if they even left the warmth of the barracks at all. Tonight, the city belonged to its underworld, and anyone walking its streets without good reason would count themselves lucky to make it home again.

On this night, a lone girl crouched catlike in the shadows of an alley, listening for the sounds of the guards' footfalls and suppressing the urge to laugh out loud.

There really was no need to fight it, and she knew that perfectly well. She could probably have danced out into the main streets and yelled her triumph at the top of her lungs, and they wouldn't hear or see her. They'd just run straight past her in hopeless pursuit of this infuriating thief who could just vanish into thin air, and she'd wave after them and then saunter back to her hideaway with her leggings weighed down with diamonds as always. But, still... it didn't feel right to do that. And probably wasn't definitely, especially if any of the watchmen had guardians of their own with them. No point in pushing her luck just because.

Her name was Willow, though near everyone in the city knew of her as Will-o'-the-Wisp. She'd had to whisper that nickname into quite a few ears before it had finally stuck, but she was quite proud of it.

"Six of them," she whispered, hazarding a quick glance out into the main street before retreating hurriedly back into her alley again. "Two heavier than the others. Armour, I guess. None of 'em sound particularly fit." She sighed exaggeratedly and turned around. "Might be a while before they're past and gone again. You can last a while longer, right?"

The woman waiting with her was slim and tall, standing a good six inches higher than Willow, and so pale as to seem almost like she glowed... which, in all honesty, she probably did. She wore a white dress long enough to obscure her legs and feet in their entirety, in stark contrast to Willow's practical outfit of tight black cloth. Her hair was long and impossibly dark, her features were, in Willow's wholly unbiased opinion, absolutely gorgeous, and most importantly of all, from just below her shoulder blades extended six wings of pure light which shone with the silver light of a dying star.

She was standing in the middle of the alley, staring distractedly into the distance, wings extended and making no attempt to hide herself at all... and yet Willow was comfortable in the knowledge that the guards were no more likely to see her than they were to see Willow herself.

Just look at her. My angel.

She lowered her head and looked Willow in the eye, her lips moving soundlessly, and it was not so much the words that echoed in the thief's head as their meaning. 'I'm all right. Don't worry. They won't find you.'

Willow grinned wryly. "What would I do without you?"

'Earn an honest living?'

"Me? No chance."

She said it in jest, but in truth, she really couldn't imagine a life without Anrael by her side. Close to fifteen years now, wasn't it? Fifteen years with a guardian spirit of her very own who never left her side, went along with every childish whim, gave her everything she had... and whom no one else even knew existed. Almost certainly, if the angel hadn't come to her during that childhood ritual, if she hadn't had the spirit to keep her company through the bad times and to get her out of trouble during the good ones, then her life would have been completely and unrecognisably different. But you simply couldn't rewind that much of a life. Without Anrael, she wouldn't be Willow, that was for sure. And she definitely wouldn't be Will-o'-the-Wisp.

Fifteen years since a five-year-old girl had emerged from the shaman's hut, blinking owlishly in the morning sunlight, and proudly announced to her parents and the rest of the village that she had met a very pretty lady with wings as bright as the sun. They'd thought her confused, of course. They'd tried to explain to her, reasonably and patiently, that girls got boy angels and boys got girl angels, and that was just the way it was. Willow had tried to tell them that, no, it very definitely was a girl angel, but they'd wanted none of it, and eventually everyone had just decided that she was making the whole thing up and that she should go to her room until she stopped pretending.

She still remembered listening despondently from her bedroom window that evening, before she'd finally accepted that perhaps there were worse things than having an invisible friend with near-godlike power that no one else knew about, and overhearing her father saying, "If it's a girl, at least she won't go falling for it and running away like all the others do!" There had been laughter.

Yeah... funny how that one turned out, dad.

The footsteps were getting louder now, muted as they were by Anrael's aura. Willow edged closer to the alley's end and peered cautiously out into the main street again, just in time to see a squad of the Watch turn a corner and come charging out onto the road, perhaps a hundred yards distant. She ducked back in, suppressing a smile. They were... enthusiastic, she had to give them that. Even though they didn't have a clue where she was, they were still running around as though in hot pursuit. Perhaps it helped them pretend they were getting somewhere.

She turned back to Anrael again, absently smoothing her hair back with a hand and spattering the wall behind her with rainwater. The angel's magic could keep light and sound out, but the rain... not so much. Her clothes were soaked, and she felt like she must have weighed twice as much just from the water they'd absorbed... and, she noted with an awkward mix of concern and appreciation, Anrael hadn't fared much better. "Not long now. Don't know about you, but I could do with a hot bath after this."

At first, there was no reply, and after a few seconds she gave Anrael a puzzled look. The angel was still staring out towards the main road, but her gaze was unfocused and distant, her brows raised slightly in an expression of confusion. "Hey. What's up?"

This time she got a response. Anrael blinked a couple of times and shook her head slightly as if to clear it, then looked down at her. 'Sorry?'

Willow gave her a surprised look. "You all right? You weren't all there just now."

A slight nod. 'It's... it's nothing.'

The pause was uncharacteristic. Anrael always knew exactly what she wanted to say... or think, or whatever it was she did. She didn't need to pause to rethink her words. "No, seriously. What is it? Something out there?"

The angel shook her head again. 'No, I'm... I'm...'

This time, she actually trailed off mid-thought. As Willow watched in concern, that distracted expression settled over her face again. Her head lifted slightly, as though she were scanning the horizon. Her lips parted unthinkingly, her eyes narrowed. For what seemed like forever she stood like that, utterly motionless, her body visibly taut... before her eyes snapped shut and she gasped sharply, one single time before she relaxed visibly with an audible sigh.

Willow felt like her heart had just stopped.

"A-all right," she said sternly, trying to keep her voice low. The guards' footsteps were definitely louder now. "What was that?"

She knew what it was, of course... well, she would have known what it was, had Anrael been anyone else. She'd always been alert and astute, good at taking in the details around her, and, well... there was one thing in particular that invariably grabbed her attention and held it. One thing she, well, had a thing for. One thing she'd always kept to herself, even from Anrael. But... angels just didn't do that, did they? Anrael certainly never had. They were ethereal, perfect beings, weren't they? It wasn't like they got sick or, or anything... was it?

'Nothing.' The thought seemed urgent, emphatic, as if she was determined to get it out as fast as possible. 'Really. A... a moment of... of...'

Willow stared, fascinated, as that faraway expression slackened the angel's face again. Watching her like this felt... voyeuristic, somehow. Her face must have been bright crimson, she knew; her throat was tight, and her whole body felt like it was burning, despite the freezing rain. But it wasn't like she could turn away now, even if she'd wanted to.

Sometimes you didn't realise how much you wanted something until it was finally within reach.

Anrael didn't notice. Her arms had dropped, limp, to her sides, her fingertips gently brushing the fabric of her dress. Her eyes narrowed again, oh so slowly; her mouth hung ever so slightly open, raindrops glistening on her lips. Willow had never been so aware of the motions of her breathing; her chest rising and falling, her fingers bending every so slightly, her wings flexing in time with every shallow breath.

It lasted for an eternity. It should have lasted for an eternity, if Willow had her way. But Anrael's eyes closed fully, her breath hitched - once, twice - and... nothing. She just stood there, head tilted back so far that the raindrops speckled her face, wings pulled tight to her back, her body quivering with barely suppressed tension. Her expression was desperate, yearning.

Willow had never seen her like this before. Anrael was always perfectly composed, wasn't she? Even in their most intimate moments, the most she ever gave was a slight teasing smile or a stern stare. To see her like this, all barriers broken down, utterly vulnerable, was...

"Beautiful," Willow breathed, without thinking.

It seemed to break the moment. Anrael turned her face towards the young thief, her brows lifting in honest surprise and her body beginning to relax, but it didn't last. Whatever sensation had overtaken her returned with a passion, and she had barely time to take an urgent, shuddering breath and bring her hands to her face before she pitched forwards in absolute silence. Her body doubled up, her hair whipped forwards over her head, and her wings spasmed, extending fully in a split-second and pulsing once with a blinding silver light. For that one moment, a blazing corona surrounded her, her body little more than a darkened silhouette in its centre.

Willow stared. She couldn't very well do much else, really. She was absolutely certain that she couldn't move even if she'd wanted to. Anrael's hair had spattered her face and body with water, but even that hadn't been enough to make her blink and miss even a moment of the experience. Only after the moment had passed, and she became vaguely aware that she was feeling a little light-headed, did she realise that she hadn't even taken a breath since that sneeze had taken hold of her guardian.

As the pounding of the blood in her ears faded a little, she realised that the sounds of the rain and of the city around them seemed... louder than they had before. Was that important? It felt like it ought to be, somehow, but with Anrael like this, nothing else really mattered any more.

Oh gods did I really just say -

Anrael looked up. Her hair was plastered across her face, but even through it Willow could see that her cheeks were as red as hers had to be. Her mouth was open; she was still breathing heavily. I'm so-

"Whhhnh?" Willow managed before stopping to try and clear her throat. "What... what was that?"

'The rain.' The reply was rushed, thoughts running together into one another in a sudden tumult. 'The cold. And the chase. I'm so sorry, but we've been out here for too long and... and I'm run... running... running out...'

"You stupid thing," Willow snapped, practically tripping over her own words. Anrael's eyes were already narrowing, and her gaze had become unfocused again. "You should have said some-"

"Hey!" The voice came from the street behind them, deep and masculine and far closer than she would have liked. "Over this way! I heard something!"

The angel's gaze was pleading, her thoughts becoming increasingly jumbled. 'S-sorry... I can't... can't keep th-this...'

Willow just gazed back at her. The Watch were on to them, now. Anrael's wards had been down for that moment of distraction, and of course somebody had immediately decided to speak up and alert the guards. Probably only a matter of seconds before at least one of them came charging down here. So the two of them really should be moving right about now. Yes. That would be a good idea.

Then why was it that she couldn't move from the spot, couldn't do anything except stare hungrily at her guardian angel as her breath came in short gasps and her body stiffened?

Anrael's gaze found hers. 'R-run! Don't let... th-th-they can't... mustn't...'

Willow's eyes softened. "You can't run like that, can you?"

'They... w-w-won't see me...'

The young thief smiled.

"Honestly. As if I'd ever leave you behind."

It was a stupid idea from the start, and she could only blame the heat of the moment for making her do it. She was hardly a strong girl. But she stepped forwards, slipped her arms around her angel's shoulders and waist, and lifted her into the air in a single smooth motion.

Anrael weighed nothing. Maybe she should have expected that? She didn't really know any more. All she knew was that she was now standing in the alley with her guardian angel in her arms, and that Anrael was looking up at her with an expression of utter helplessness. It lasted for a couple of seconds, maybe, before the angel reached out for Willow, pulled herself closer, and muffled a second sneeze into the young thief's chest. Her body shivered in her arms.

No one but me can see her, thought the small part of Willow's mind that wasn't totally overwhelmed by the experience. That must make me the luckiest girl alive.

I must look like an absolute arse if anyone saw me like this.

Guess I'd better not let them, then.

She ran, and the night soon swallowed her.

[Blah!?]

Aww, that's so sweet. Uh, no pun intended. *is shot*

Anyway, that was a wonderful little story. As much as I like to see sneezes spelled out, I think leaving the spellings out helped to add to the element of silence.

Thanks for sharing! Any chance of a continuation?

[Blue Alphonse]

Hee, thanks. It's good to hear it proved readable.

I must admit, I did realise after writing the thing that I kind of shot myself in the foot by deciding that angels would be silent. I think that one might be in need of surreptitious retconning...

And yes, my brain has already started spinning up a couple of potential follow-ups. The odds are good that I'll try to thrash one of them out soon enough. Writing these is actually kind of fun.

[Alexandria]

i'd really like to see some followups!

[InactiveAccount6439]

This was SO sweet! I LOVE the characters and the plot and everything! I hope there'll be a follow-up =D And I have to agree with Blah-San on the silent sneezes part- it really added to the moment!

[megacycle]

Good story. very well written. Keep up the good work.