Chapter Text
You had never believed in the concepts of angels and demons. It was something of fantasy, none of it was real, and it didn't concern you. There was no way to explain them, so they probably didn't exist. Supernatural just . . . wasn't your calling, and it had always been that way. So when your parents started urging you to pay attention to the news, to see what was going on, you only took mild interest in it. They weren't exactly the religious type either, but they were far more superstitious than you were. You were getting that phone call again, while at work no less. Of course you didn't know that until you picked up the phone.
“Hello, how can I help you?” you answered.
“Turn on the live feed!” you heard your mother on the other end, and you let out a sigh as your hand shifted over to the mouse to open a web browser.
“Mom, I told you not to call me at work.” you mentioned, opening the live feed for the local news station. It had been raining all day, but they were saying the weather was going to get worse, far worse. “It's just a little rain.”
“Don't you think this is odd? Just watch the skies! If anyone disappears, YOU COME RIGHT HOME!” your mother shouted in a panic.
“Mom, this isn't the rapture and I haven't live with you in 5 years, why would I go to your house?” you said with a deadpan tone to your voice. “Look, I have to get back to work. Don't call me on the work phone anymore.”
“But your phone is off!”
“Because I'm at work.”
“Just please be--”
You hung up the phone and reached up to pinch the bridge of your nose, looking to the feed that showed the waves crashing up along the rock lined shore. This was just a storm. Nothing more and nothing less.
“Attention employees! The weather is getting far too dangerous and thus we're ending the day early. Please make your way home safely.”
Your boss' voice called out over the intercom, and everyone started to stand, gathering their things to head home for the day. Really? Was it that bad out? You glanced to the window, seeing the downpour getting heavier. Okay, maybe it was pretty bad. Once you had everything together, you pulled on your coat and stepped outside to open your umbrella. Or you tried anyway. The moment you opened it, the wind ripped it from your hand, and you watched helplessly as it vanished into the distance.
“. . . Sonofabitch.” you muttered. At least the walk wasn't terribly long.
Thunder rumbled in the sky above as weapons clashed against one another. The sparks from metal against metal echoed the lightning that struck the earth below, and the heavy beating of wings kept the two celestial beings aloft in the air during the fight. One of them had feathery wings as white as freshly fallen snow, a male that wore a white suit with a green dress shirt underneath. The other was the opposite, small pink horns popped up from within that dark hair, the same wings but were stained black like the night and his suit was of the same color, a pink shirt was visible under the dark black of his suit jacket.
The two of them were locked in a heated battle it seemed, fighting against the weather as well as each other, the two of them tried to keep aloft despite the heavy rain. The one stained black brandished a sword that clanged hard against the other weapon the angel in white used, and another forceful clash caused the two of them to separate.
“You know this is wrong, Todomatsu!” the one in white yelled, flapping his wings to keep himself in the air.
“I think we've established that I've never really been in the right, Choromatsu.” the darker looking being spoke out.
“There's still time to stop this! You can still come back!”
“. . .”
There was a soft pause as the two beings in flight hovered in the air, looking at each other. The one in white smiled at the look of conflict on the other's face, and held his hand out towards him.
“Brother, please.”
“. . . Nah.” Todomatsu shrugged his shoulders upward, as a sudden gathering of dark energy formed around him.
“TODOMAT--” Choromatsu screamed out at him, just in time for all that energy to burst out and once and slam into him hard. He was knocked out of air, plummeting down to the earth with the falling rain and the winds pushing him faster.
“Sorry, brother.” said Todomatsu, the bits of energy fading away from around him. Maybe there was a twinge of regret, but the sooner he moved away from the scene, the better he'd feel probably. He gave one last look before turning himself, flying up higher above the clouds to get out of the rain, leaving behind everything he had just done.
You were having it up to here with all this rain and wind. You didn't even bother to shield yourself because even if you tried, the rest of your body would be soaked, like it already was now. Instead you were running as fast as you could, weaving between people who all had more dependable umbrellas than you had. How did they even manage not to lose theirs to the wind? Ugh, you just wanted to get home and get into the shower, some nice dry clothes afterward. But your thoughts of home plans were suddenly interrupted when you looked up after hearing people around you muttering about something falling from the sky.
“Is is a meteor?” one person spoke. Your eyes squinted as they followed the falling object that was . . . that was near your apartment, wasn't it? You grit your teeth and pushed past everyone else, making a b-line towards home while silently cursing to yourself that it better not hit your apartment building.
The rain was heavier by the time you approached the building, and you didn't see any damage.
“Huh, must of burned up in the atmosphere.” you said, staring up at the sky before realizing it was a bad idea as your face was pelted with rain. Your eyes squinted shut, head lowered, and opened again to see a fair bit of smoke coming from the alley next to the building. Eh? A fire? How was it even burning with this much rain? You quickly wandered over to see just how bad it was, getting your phone out to call the police.
Only there was no fire.
You stared at the scene, the ground and part of the wall of the building next to yours was crumbling, a pile of bricks with smoke rising up from under them. You could see a hand sticking out from the rubble.
“A . . . person? Shit! Hang on!”
You nearly drop your phone, shoving it back into your pocket, like that would protect it from the rain, and rushed over to the pile of bricks, starting to dig through them, throwing them here and there as you began to dig out the person caught beneath them.
“Almost . . . there! Don't worry! I got-- . . . you?” you said, stopping your digging once you had cleared away most of the brick. It was a man dressed in a white suit, green shirt underneath. Were those . . . wings? You stared down at the unconscious man, eyes locked on the snowy white feathers. What was this, some sort of cosplay? You were about to chalk it up to that, but you inspected those feathers closer, red stained near one of the joints, and it was bent in an odd way. This was just . . . paint. Right? You touched the red substance, only to draw your hand back and swirl it between your fingers. No, this was blood. BLOOD? No, this wasn't real, this couldn't be real. It must have been from another part of his body.
It was better to get him out of the rain first. Once you got him inside, you could maybe call a doctor for him or an ambulance. You weren't exactly strong, so when you reached to pick him up, you found he was much heavier than he looked. You tried to grab him under the arms and pulled him up, his weight leaning against your chest. This didn't look weird at all! You at least had him in your arms now, those wings limp behind him. Man those things looked really realistic, you couldn't even feel a harness under his clothes! Now all you had to do was get him up to your apartment without anyone seeing you dragging a literal body around.
It took a few tries and one of your neighbors almost caught you. You had to explain it was a drunk friend and you were just letting them sober up after a night at a convention. Trying to get your key into the door while holding someone that weighed more than groceries was difficult as well, but once inside, you let everything except the man drop to the floor. You used your toes to pull down the heels of your shoes and everything was being left wet behind you, but you eventually got the guy to your couch and tried to lay him on it.
It wasn't quite working with those wings.
You instead laid him on the floor, and stood over him for a moment to try and figure this out. You could get him on the couch if you could just get those wings off, but the harness was probably under his clothes. You didn't exactly think undressing a stranger would be the best thing to do, but the floor wasn't going to be comfortable. You had to think of something!
“Ugh, man. Don't hate me for this when you wake up.” you said with a soft sigh before sitting on your knees beside the man, starting to work that jacket off. It was hard because everything was wet, and you had expected to see some kind of harness under the jacket, but was surprised to find nothing there. Under the shirt then? This guy was really dedicated. You looked over his body once more, eyes falling on the tie. You weren't even sure how to tie a tie, let alone undo one. But you were gonna try anyway. You almost got it in a worse knot.
You managed to get it off though, and was starting to unbutton his shirt. This was so bad. If he woke up now-- It felt like there was a pair of eyes on you, and you looked up to see the man was wide awake, looking at you with bleary eyes before they lowered down to your hands unbuttoning his shirt. There was a long pause of nothing, and then suddenly he screamed and scrambled out from under you, shuffling back and holding his arm over his chest while you lost your balance and hit the ground after you fell over.
“W-WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!” he shouted out, his entire face red. You couldn't tell if it was because he was mad or embarrassed.
“Huh?! I-It's not what it looks like! I promise!!” you stood as you shouted back, trying to plead your case. Your face was just as red. From embarrassment of course.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! YOU WERE UNDRESSING ME!” he shouted back.
“I WAS GONNA TRY AND GET YOUR WINGS OFF SO I COULD LAY YOU ON THE COUCH!” you spat back. Man this was probably an interesting conversation for your neighbors to overhear. “WHO THE FUCK WEARS A HARNESS UNDER THEIR CLOTHES, DOESN'T THAT CHAFF?”
“Harness?”
“Yes! For your wings!”
“These are real.” said the man, looking back before frowning at that one oddly bent one. “A-Ah . . . oh no.”
You couldn't believe this guy's dedication. Now he was saying they were real. Maybe he was actually drunk.
“Come on man, I know you were just buried under some bricks but I don't think that's a reason to lose your-- WOAH WOAH WOAH!!” you started to speak, but the guy was suddenly unbuttoning the rest of his shirt, and your hands shot up in front of you in a defensive gesture. HE WAS JUST UNDRESSING HIMSELF?!
But you saw the reason soon enough. He turned around so his back was to you, and you could see . . . they were attached to his body. The wings . . . they were actually. . .
“My name is Choromatsu, I am an angel, a defender of the heavens.” he began.
“. . . No you're fucking not.”
“Eh?!”
Choromatsu turned around to see the skeptical look on your face. “Angels aren't real, this is probably some fucked up dream from me being overworked!”
“But I just showed--” he began.
“A dream!” you shouted back at him. You turned around to start to leave for the kitchen when suddenly his hand was on your shoulder, stopping you from going any farther.
“I promise you I am very real!” he was the one trying to plead his case now. “My wing is broken, otherwise I'd show you that I can actually fly!”
You couldn't believe this. You didn't want to believe this. Stuff like this just didn't exist! You glared at the man with irritation, before bringing your arm up in front of you, your hand in a fist. Choromatsu just stared as your other hand smacked down on your forearm, starting to push down on it, and the look of irritation grew more and more.
“. . .What are you-- ?!” began Choromatsu, until he watched in horror as your hand pulled away and your arm swung up, making you punch yourself directly in the face. You fell to the ground with a thud, groaning and rolling back and forth on the ground as your eye throbbed from the pain.
“Are you okay?! Why did you punch yourself?!” The poor guy was just in as much distress as you were it seemed like.
“I was trying to wake up from this stupid dream!” you cried out. But you were still here, he was still here. This wasn't a dream, was it? This guy was actually . . . the real deal.
“Don't people normally just pinch themselves?” he asked, and you growled out and waved your hand at him to get away from you.
That small pendulum clock you got from your mother on christmas ticked away on the wall as you sat on the floor in front of the small table in your living room. Across from you, was Choromatsu, hands in his lap and looking awkward, as the shirt you gave him to change into had to actually be cut to fit his wings into. You had to do it. You had to cut open a shirt for someones GOD DAMN WINGS. And you saw them too, they were actually attached to his body. You couldn't believe it. You didn't want to believe it.
But it was right in front of your face, and that was hard enough evidence.
He was an angel, or some kind of supernatural being. Maybe a bird man. No, an angel was probably more correct. This was so much to take in, and the two of you had been sitting across from each other in silence for a good 20 minutes before one of you finally spoke.
“So what is the deal with you being here.” you said finally, causing Choromatsu to jerk out of his daze.
“H-Huh?! Oh, yes, right.” he cleared his throat. “You see, there's a bit of a . . . war going on right now-- H-Hey!”
The moment he said anything about a war, you got up from the table and started walking away. Choromatsu stood as well, cringing a little in pain of his broken wing, but he followed after you anyway.
“Where are you going? I just started!”
“I'm not getting involved.” you muttered, slipping on your jacket and shoes.
“You're just leaving me here?” asked Choromatsu, frowning. You ended up turning around to face him, stern look in your eyes.
“Do NOT leave. Do NOT let anyone see you, don't open the door unless it's me.” you demanded, before stepping out of your apartment and into the rain. The door slammed shut, and Choromatsu was left standing there with a look of pure confusion on his face. At least you had a raincoat this time, so the weather wasn't too bad. You pulled your phone out from your pocket and dialed your mother's number, to which she answered almost instantly.
“What's the matter, did something happen? DID YOU FIND SOMEONE'S CLOTHES?!” she shouted in a panic, loud enough for you to pull the phone away from your ear.
“Mom, what did I tell you about yelling about prophecies? I need some help.”
“Help? What do you need? Do I need to drive there--”
“No, no mom. Look,” you began, running a hand down your face. “You were going to be a veterinary technician, right? What should I do about a broken wing?”
There was a long pause on the other end before your mother spoke more calmly. “Did you get a pet?”
“No, mom. I-- uh, I found a bird out in the storm with a broken wing. What do I need to get for it?”
“You're going to want to locate the wound, disinfect and. . .”
You listened to what she instructed, running to the nearest store to get the supplies, and after a lengthy conversation, hung up the phone just in time to be sitting at your apartment door. You opened it up, stepping inside and slipping off your shoes and jacket. Choromatsu hadn't moved from his spot on the floor, staring down at the table's surface until he realized you were home and lifted his head.
“Ah, look. I'm really sorr--” he began, but you just held your hand up, silencing him. He looked with wide eyes as you made your way over and sat down behind him. “U-Um. . .”
You pulled everything out of the bag, bandages, ointment, everything your mother told you to get. You remained silent as you got to work, first pulling off that shirt, much to his dismay, and searched among the white feathers for the blood stained ones of earlier. Once you found the injury, you started cleaning it, applying the ointment, and Choromatsu cringed and jerked from the pain.
“Stop moving.” you muttered, and he let out a soft whine as you forced his wing to fold against his back. You set the wing in place, and started wrapping the bandages around his body to keep him from being tempted to use them. The poor angel was making all sorts of noises of protest, and . . . maybe a few of them were cute, but that didn't matter right now. Once everything was wrapped and set, you got up and moved around to the other side of the table before pushing a bottle of pain killers towards him.
Choromatsu stared, for a moment, looking at you with wide eyes before back down at the pills. You . . . you had fixed his wing! And gave him something for the pain! He started saying something, but you cut him off before he could finish.
“The sooner you heal, the sooner you can get out of my life and everything can go back to normal.”
Ouch. He actually looked hurt. Granted you both did only meet each other today, but still, you wanted him out of your life? He stared down at the table top once more, hands in his lap. You couldn't help but stared before letting out a sigh.
“I didn't mean it like that. Look, I don't really care about all this supernatural mumbo jumbo. I never have. I just want to live a normal life and not have to deal with some kind of war between angels and demons.”
“They're my brothers.” Choromatsu said, voice quiet.
“Eh?” you looked up at him as he let out a soft sigh.
“We were all angels part of the top guard, but something happened to the eldest, Osomatsu. He became corrupted, and took our younger brothers, Todomatsu and Ichimatsu with him. They're demons now, and fighting a war against the captain of the guard, my brother Karamatsu. Jyushimatsu and myself are part of this. They're trying to take over heaven and corrupt the rest of the angels, plunge the world into chaos.”
So he got his story out. You had been pinching the bridge of your nose as you listened. You could not fucking believe this. What happened to your normal life? What happened to just going to work, sometimes going to the bar after, talking about what your next vacation idea might be?
Now you're sitting in your living room talking to an angel about the end of the world.
And now your crazy mother might just be right. It was a dark day on earth when your mother was right about THIS.
“So now heaven is one man down because you're stuck in my apartment with a broken wing.” you groaned.
“Well, yes. But Karamatsu is strong! And so is Jyushimatsu! I'm sure they'll be able to handle things while I recover!” said Choromatsu.
“Don't ask me for any favors outside of this.” you suddenly spoke.
“Huh?”
“I'm not some hero, I can't help you save the world. Don't ask me to. All I'm doing is letting you stay here while you heal. That's it.”
Choromatsu looked at you, before letting out a light laugh and smiled. “Oh, I wouldn't wish that responsibility on you, you're far too kind.”
You blinked at that compliment before you could feel a blush creeping up on your face. Your hand quickly came up to cover it.
“You can stay on the couch for now. I'm going to bed, I have work in the morning.” you quickly spat out before turning around, heading for your bedroom and shutting the door behind you. Choromatsu watched, before that smile remained on his face, and he looked down at his hands.
“I hope you guys will be okay, Karamatsu and Jyushimatsu. . .”