Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To be a guardian angel means to teach about what's right to those who seem to be blindly walking towards a path of bad decisions.
To be a guardian angel means to know and do what's best for the person in your care.
You may feel the weight of white wings being carried by your back but to be an angel you must remember:

Selfish feelings are out of the table.

A loud sigh came out of Isaac's mouth as he flopped down onto the sofa next to the girl sitting on one of the corners.

“Ooh, that doesn't sound good. All nighter today too?”

“We went to some party one of his friends did. God, being with so many people inside a house makes you get a headache. I don't know how he enjoys this.” He rubbed his eyes, hearing the brunette chuckle beside him.

Who was 'he'? You may ask. Well, you'll need to know first that, some years ago, Isaac had been a guardian angel "in practice", under the teaching of Mr. Spender, an experienced guardian angel. He shared his classes with Isabel, who had bonded with him over their shared hate for boring classes.
And finally, two years ago, after studying practically all their life to earn the title of guardian angel, they had been assigned a human to look over.
But the thing was, Isaac still was a teen who had to go to school, and have classes, which came with having tests, and exams, and essays. And sometimes Isaac couldn't handle everything.

Now, he didn't have any right to say how the head angels had to do their work and pick the guardian for each human. But if Isabel got a nice guy you would think they thought "well, let's give the other new guardian someone easy to handle too", right? Oh, no. Isaac had to look over him. Maxwell Puckett. Maxwell Puckett with his piercings, and know it all personality, and his bad habit of picking the worst friends to hang out with.
Well, maybe that was dramatic, but the first few months definitely weren't easy. He may had spent 18 years of his life studying on how to be a guardian angel but they never taught him how to start talking to the person under your care, specially if that person was one of Mayview's High School punks. Even before starting all this, Isaac had heard of the guy, he seemed to be in some of his classes too but he rarely showed up. Isaac was already dreading how he'll convince the guy to actually go to class. But first, he had to know where to find him.

Isaac soon realised he'll need to go to the parties Max never failed to attend and keep an eye on him while trying to look like he was there by his own free will. And he really wasn't keen on teenage parties, specially the one's that came with alcohol.
But then, one day, above all the music and through the figures of teenagers dancing to the rhythm, Max had caught him staring and Isaac didn't know what to do besides looking away from those grey eyes, quickly turning to his beverage, which was only carbonated apple juice. He didn't have a plan, he always thought he would be watching over the guy without the need to introduce himself.
He wasn't expecting Max to walk towards him and actually start talking to him. Sometimes he wondered if he looked that uncomfortable and out of place that the brunet decided to have pity on Isaac.
And Isaac didn't expect it but they clicked quite easily and he realised he shouldn't have felt intimidated by Max at all.

Since that day everything was more enjoyable and in the last two years, he learned that Max was the best example of the saying: 'you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.'
Max was caring even if he tried to hide it, he cared about his family and his friends, which Isaac was happy to realise he had become part of, a lot.
Max was a nerd. He kept comic books all around his room and loved to play video games even though he would deny it if you mentioned it anywhere outside his room.
Max was smart when he actually decided to give his attention in class. Though Isaac still didn't understand how the guy's grades were so good while he didn't attend to class once a week. Well, he was proud that he at least attended now, before Isaac came into scene Max managed to be nearly a week without showing up to class.
Max was so many more things than part of "Mayview High School's punks" and Isaac was so glad he had this knowledge.

And now, here he was, back from a party he and Max had attended. Because even though Max didn't go to parties as much as he did since Isaac met him, he still needed to enjoy the night every once in a while. And Isaac couldn't say no when the brunet asked him to come with him. Yeah, maybe he spent too much time with the brunet but Isaac liked to think he was doing this because he took his duty seriously.

Isaac came back from his thoughts when he felt Isabel tugging the front side of his hoodie looking at the letters in it. 'Insolent Children' it said. “...And these clothes?”

He snorted and rolled his eyes reminiscing. “He pushed me into a pool.” The girl beside him cackled. “I stayed at his place so he lend me...” He looked down at himself, trying to restrain the smile that was growing on his lips. ”This.”

“Aww, that's cute.”

“How's Ed?” Isaac changed the subject before the girl could comment about the blush creeping across his face.

And based by the smile the girl quickly showed, she was more than happy to talk about the guy under her care. “He is fine! Everything alright except he had a history test to study for tomorrow.”

Isaac snickered. “So you helped him study history?”

She shrugged. “It was still a problem that I could help solve.” Her brown eyes glinted with amusement, giving even more life to the smile she wore. “Besides, that's what friends are for.”

“Isabel” Heavy steps hitting against hard wood was heard around the room, until an old man, Francisco Guerra, came into view. ”You should know by now you'll never be a head angel if you don't think of this as a duty. Being a guardian angel isn't a game. It shouldn't be fun.”
Isaac swallowed while Isabel growled at the man's words. That was another thing, if your superiors thought you were doing your job good enough, and your human started to show they didn't need your assistance anymore, they'd "promote" you. Isaac wanted to think he was doing as good as he could, but there were moments where he caught himself wishing he stayed like this forever.
He enjoyed himself when he was with Max, all the parties, every time it was just the two of them talking about nothing in particular, all the times he was the one learning something new from Max. Isaac cherished every moment with him, he wouldn't change any of that.

Isabel crossed her arms. “Grandpa, how am I supposed to look over Ed if I'm not his friend.”

“You studied for years to learn that. You and your friend better be doing your job right.”

Before Isabel could say anything, the doorbell rang and Francisco went to open it. A blond man in glasses stood in the other side of the door.

“Good morning, master.”

“It might be good for you. I am done with all of you fiddling around my house for years now.” Investigation day, as Isabel liked to call it. It was done once a week and it consisted in the angels around the neighbourhood, in this case: Isaac, Isabel, Spender, (and sometimes Zarei, an experienced guardian angel just like Mr. Spender, if she wasn't too busy with her actual job as a doctor) getting together in the head angel's house to talk about how their progress with the person they looked over was going.

The blond man scratched his cheek. “Well, there's nothing I can do about that as those are rules but-...”

“Do you really want to talk about rules with me, Richard?” The man hissed between his teeth.

The blond coughed and his head quickly turned to the pair sitting on the sofa. “Hello, students! How has your day been?” Spender nervously squeezed his way through the doorway and entered the living room, getting a greeting from both teens.

“Sir, you stopped being our teacher years ago. I think you can stop calling us your students now.” The girl said while the ginger scooted more over to her side to give more space in the sofa.

As he sat, Spender looked at Isaac and raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Isaac, you have big eye bags today.” The ginger groaned and covered his face with his hands as the girl laughed beside him. Spender smiled sympathetically. “I sure hope yesterday's work went well.”

“He is alive and well. Basically everything I'm not right now.” He said slightly moving his face from his hands to talk before going back to his defeated stance.

“Huh? But we aren't dead per se, we've talked about this.”

“Oh, I assure you Isabel, my soul says otherwise.” He answered, voice muffled against his hands.

“Enough. I'd like to finish this as soon as possible since you two have actual classes to attend to in a few minutes.” Francisco pointed at Isaac and Isabel as he positioned an individual chair in front of the three before walking towards one of the house's rooms and coming back with a red book in his hands.
The Eightfold, in it's first pages written every rule regarding the angel's world and as you kept reading, the history of every angel that has laid foot on Mayview. That was as much as Isaac knew about it since their superiors kept things mostly a secret to younger angels.
The man took a pencil from in the table between them and opened one of the pages, starting to write something in it, Isaac supposed it was today's date but then the man raised his gaze from the book and looked at him with his narrowed eyes before continuing, and the ginger hoped he wasn't taking note on his clothes. “You go first, boy. How have these last weeks been?”

Isaac swallowed. Right, what should he tell? “Max has been-... I mean, Maxwell Puckett has been keeping up his good progress so far.” Yeah, that sounded... Accurate.

“Do you count being surrounded with bad relationships and bad habits as progress?” The man asked lifting an eyebrow.

“No, I count being able to get amazing grades and actually caring about your studies a progress.” He answered imitating the man's expression, before going wide eyed realising who he just shot back to.

Francisco hummed. “Good job, then.” He commented an wrote down in the book as Isaac coughed in his hand and looked at Isabel who seemed to be way too amused with this. “Isabel.”

She straightened her back from her position in the sofa and mocked a military salute. “Edward Burger seems to be starting to have more confidence in himself and keeps on progressing.” She grinned. “Of course, you shouldn't have expected anything else from me since I'm the best guardian angel in this place.” She snickered at Isaac who smiled back and rolled his eyes.

Guerra muttered something unintelligible under his breath as he wrote down on the book. Then he looked at the Spender and Isaac felt how the atmosphere changed, or now that he thought about it, maybe that was just him. He's been really nervous lately. “Spender” The blond quickly raised his gaze from the floor. “How has your human been?”

“He... Garcia's fine, as always. Didn't find any problems these past days.” He answered, his hands tangled while rubbing his thumbs together.

Francisco nodded. “Are you okay too?”

The blond smiled but Isaac could see his forehead beginning to sweat. The ginger raised an eyebrow. Something was up. “Why wouldn't I be?”

Francisco suddenly closed the book loudly, making all the people sitting in the sofa jump. “Well, all of you can go now. Have a nice day.” Isabel and Isaac got up, both walking towards where their backpacks were. “And take care of your wings.” Isaac did a quick turn, wide eyed. The subject about anything happening to an angel's wings was taboo. Angel's wings weren't supposed to break, they were a symbol, a mark that you carried to remember what you are. If even a single feather dared to start falling, it meant bad news for it's owner. Did he know-?! “Spender, before you go I need to talk to you.”
False alarm.

Sighing relieved, Isaac put his hands inside the pocket of his hoodie, clutching onto the feather he kept inside it.

The sound of water splashing everywhere brought back Isaac from his wandering mind. He raised his gaze from the floor without remembering when he had let himself get lost in his thoughts. Apparently enough to give Max time to take his clothes off, only leaving his jeans on, and jump into the big pool that was in the backyard.

“Max! What are you doing?!”

“Is that a rhetorical question or are you blind?”
Isaac sighed taking a couple of steps closer to his friend who kept calmly swimming around the pool.

It was just another night of partying, this time it was in the house of one of Max's friends, her name was Violet if Isaac remembered correctly. Apart of her name, the ginger didn't know anything more about the girl but apparently she didn't have any problem with him being there, so there they were.
It has probably been an hour or two since they arrived, and Isaac though he had this controlled. Of course, he didn't expect a party inside a house to be the same as one in the open air. But he wasn't expecting to feel as overwhelmed as he was feeling with a huge crowd of people and the loud music surrounding them either.
He didn't know when Max had guided him through the swarm of people to the house's backyard, but he sure felt extremely thankful for it.

“Get out of there. We don't even know if Violet lets us do this.”

Max scoffed. “Violet won't mind.” He swam to the border of the pool, resting his arms on them. “Plus she is in like, her fourth tequila shot so...” Isaac couldn't help but chuckle at that, he sat on the floor watching Max swim around the water for a while. “You're going to sit there all day?”

“Huh?”

Max rolled his eyes. “Get in here, you party pooper.” He raised his arms and splashed them on the water.

Isaac instantly clutched to the sleeve of his jacket, feeling the presence of his folded wings against his back. “It's too cold to be doing this, Max. I'm not taking off my clothes.” Well, he wasn't wrong. The weather had been really cold these last few days.

Clicking his tongue, Max splashed water with his arms to the outside of the pool, drenching Isaac right on one side of his pants. Isaac frowned at Max shit eating grin. “Oops.”

Isaac sighed and got up to take off his shoes hearing Max's cheers in the background. “I'm just going to put my feet in the pool. Don't get the wrong idea.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Max swam back towards the border of the pool, following Isaac with his gaze and snickered when the ginger sat quietly beside him, only submerging his legs enough to let the water touch around his calves and also wet the cuff of his jeans.

Isaac was calmly moving his legs around the water when he looked at Max who wore a mischievous smirk in his face as he swam closer to Isaac's legs. The ginger lifted an eyebrow, following Max with his eyes, not liking at all that look. By the time he felt Max's hands grip onto one of his ankles it was too late. “Don-!” Isaac held onto the floor, using all the strength he had in his arms to balance the force of Max pulling his leg, making him slide more and more into the pool. “I'm going to kill you! I swea-!” Isaac fell into the pool, hearing Max's cackles even inside the freezing water.

Isaac felt the weight of his drenched wings in his back, luckily they weren't as heavy as he expected, he just hoped Max didn't notice him struggling to carry them. He swam back to the surface, taking a deep breath as he did and hearing Max's laugh non-stop.
“Oh god, you look like a cat that just had a shower.” The brunet said between laughs, putting his arms around his stomach.

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.” He kept repeating that mantra as he tried his best to swim towards Max who, still laughing, raised his arm as if keeping him from doing his murderous act. It didn't help much since Isaac managed to get a grip on his shoulders which he pushed with all the strength he could, immersing the brunet completely into the water.
Isaac smiled victoriously until he felt Max hold onto one of his legs again to mess with his balance, making his feet slip in the pool's floor and fall back in the water as he tried not to laugh.

For some minutes it was just that, a party going on barely thirty feet away from them, the music and the sound of the people inside could be heard even from the backyard that only the two of them were in without a care in the world, fighting between laughs to submerge each other inside a pool that didn't even belong to them.

Isaac impulsed himself out of the pool, holding onto the border and he let his back hit the floor. He stayed there, panting and looking at the starry night sky. He heard Max swim towards him and he dreaded he might feel the pull on his leg again, he sighed in relief when saw the brunet getting out of the pool too and lay next to him on the floor, with a smile on his face.
They stayed like that, in silence for just a moment.

“Have you ever been to the beach?” Max had asked out of nowhere, breaking the silence. Isaac shook his head. He has never left Mayview, wasn't thinking about leaving either. “We have to go to one someday. Without drenching our actual clothes this time.” He said and Isaac smiled, he couldn't help but feel happy every time the brunet added him to his plans. Going to the beach would be impossible for him, this time in the pool was already challenging enough. But it was nice to dream.

“You owe me new clothes.” Isaac commented, without moving his gaze from the sky.

He heard Max snort. “If you had gotten inside the pool like I told you to, it wouldn't've come to this.”

“You're impossible.”

Max propped his head in one hand and Isaac couldn't help but notice how the water droplets that covered his body made his skin shine under the moonlight with every move he did. “You love it.”

Isaac smiled and jumped when he felt a slight tug on one of his wings. He pretended to be scratching his back, trying to feel what had happened. His heart skipped a beat when he felt a loose feather inside his jacket. Angel's feathers weren't supposed to fall. Long time ago Spender taught them that angel's wings were extremely resistant and in rare occasions anything would happen to them, occasions the teacher didn't tell. "Because guardian angels wouldn't have their wings broken if they know how to do their job right."
So then why...?

“You okay?”

Isaac discreetly hid the feather inside his pocket. He'll need to ask Mr. Spender later.
“Yeah, it's just freezing out here.”

Max snickered and got up from the floor. “Yeah, we should probably go now. You want to go to my place? I could give you dry clothes.”

Isaac groaned as he walked towards his shoes, the only thing that he saved from getting wet. “I hate your clothes. They're full of band names I don't recognise.”

“I hate that you've never been to an Insolent Children concert live and you don't see me whining about it.”

Isaac's complains followed Max as they walked towards the fence they'd have to jump over to get out of the backyard. It wasn't really a good idea but Isaac didn't think the party people would like them to get inside the house drenching the whole place anyways.

Isaac knew eavesdropping wasn't a good idea, and it became a horrible idea when it was his superiors he was eavesdropping. But in his defence, he needed to talk to Spender, he wasn't expecting for Francisco to close the door behind him as he and Spender entered the room. So the ginger waited for Spender to come out... While having his right ear pressed against one side of the door.

“I would be grateful if you restrained yourself from making your comments about... My condition with other people present, specially in front of my students.”

“Good, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Then, there was a long silence and for a moment Isaac dreaded the door in front of him might open. “Have you made your decision yet?”

“I don't think I can-”

“Have you made your decision yet, Spender?” Isaac frowned. He wasn't understanding a word. What were they even talking about?

“...I have.”

“Isaac!” The ginger nearly jumped out of his skin, hearing Isabel's call a few feet away from him. “You comin' or not?” Oh, right. High school awaited.

Isaac gave one last look at the door before running to walk beside his friend. He'll find time to ask Mr. Spender later.

Chapter Text

You know those moments when you wake up in the morning because the bright rays of the sun slip through your window blinds and you feel full of energy to start the day?
Well, Max didn't have those.

The brunet groaned, putting his arm above his face and turning his back to the source of light. It didn't really help. Unfortunately, he was already awake.
He reached blindly for his phone that laid on the nightstand beside his bed, flipping it open and pressing a random button to light up the screen. '1PM'.
Sitting up lazily on the bed, he rubbed his eyes and yawned before looking around his room, trying to make his eyes accommodate to the bright lights the sun gave right in front of his window. Next time he will try check if he has it totally closed before going to sleep, but apparently last night he didn't even have the energy to put on comfortable clothes for sleeping since he still was wearing the clothes he used yesterday.

His gaze stopped at the blow-up bed right beside his and tried to remember why that was there again.
Oh, right. Isaac stayed the night.

The sheets and blanket they had put on the bed for Isaac were already folded and ready to put back in the closet, so he guessed the ginger left the house a long time ago.
How did his friend even find the will to wake up early in the morning and go to high school after basically falling asleep at 4AM, he didn't know. What Max certainly knew was that he probably was regretting every decision he had made after accepting Max's invitation to Violet's party.

Isaac staying the night wasn't an everyday thing but it wasn't unusual either. Having Max hide the blow-up mattress in the space under his bed was enough proof of the frequency his friend stayed over at this point.
It was kinda funny, he never would have thought about having someone around his room without feeling the fear of something ending up broken somewhere in the house. Because let's be honest, Johnny and the others were cool and all, but Isaac was much better company when it came to staying the night. At least he didn't break anything when he stayed over.
Actually, he never would have expected having such a "calm" friend in general and being okay with it.

He wouldn't lie, at first he thought Isaac was a little strange. He always saw him sitting in the corner, just drinking whatever was in his cup with his eyes never moving from his phone screen like it would kill him if he even dared to raise his gaze. It was so ironically hilarious; he looked so out of place and at the same time he stood out the most among all the people. Why was he there?
Without really meaning to, he started looking for Isaac every time he went to a party.
He would walk just one step inside the place and his eyes were already scanning the room trying to recognise that tinge of orange hair under the low lights and the huge crowd of teenagers.

It passed some time until Max had started to get tired of just looking but he couldn't bring himself the courage to actually talk to the guy. Probably because he felt he was the perfect image of the kind of person the ginger didn't like. He saw him in school (yes, he started looking at the guy during school too, let him live) and during lunch the boy always sat beside Isabel and Ed. At the time, Max didn't really knew a lot about them, just that they had a few classes together and that was about it. But he could tell those two were hardly anything like him.
Yeah, he jumped into conclusions and judged way too quickly.

He had to talk about it to someone, he needed advice. Advice that came in the form of drunk teasing, obviously, he wouldn't have expected anything more from the Jang (and there was no way he was telling this to them when they were completely sober either). But once he had pointed out who he was talking about they instantly said something along the lines of "You mean the dude that's been looking at you for ages now?”
He instantly turned and yes, those eyes were certainly looking at him, and then quickly back down to the cup he was holding between his hands when he noticed Max staring.
Talk to him. The voice inside his mind kept repeating like a mantra.
And so he did.

“You come around here often?” Of course he did, dumbass. Like you don't always see him every time you go to one of these.

The guy made a chocking noise taking the cup he was drinking from away from his lips before looking up at him. “Excuse me?” Oh god, from the distance Max had noticed the ginger had clear eyes but now that he actually was much closer to them, he wasn't expecting to see such a shade of blue staring back to him, expectantly.
Max, you're supposed to say something now.

The brunet looked down at the cup trying to regain his ability to form a coherent sentence. Of all the times to end up speechless, it had to be now.
A couple of seconds of silence that lasted nearly years for Max passed until he noticed the bubbly drink that laid in the guy's hands. “What are you drinking?” He guessed it was champagne but if that was the case, it would be a really strange option for this kind of party.

“Um...” The boy looked down at his own drink with a funny look in his face. Max raised an eyebrow, amused. “Apple juice.” He answered before taking a long sip from his cup, trying to hide the embarrassment that was starting to show in his face.

Max looked at him stunned before tossing his head back as he laughed. He tried to subside his chuckles when he noticed the other frowning but he really couldn't help the amusement in his voice as he put his hands on the guys shoulders and said “What are you doing here?”

“I'm sorry?!” He raised his voice and shook his shoulders away from Max's grasp. The brunet lifted both his hands with a smile trying to show he meant no harm in what he said.

“No, dude. Like, look at yourself.” The ginger actually looked down confused and then at his surrounding as if trying to see if there was something wrong with his clothes making Max laugh again. He reached over the table to shake the cup between the boy's hands to catch his attention. Yeah, just to catch his attention. He definitely didn't mean for their hands to brush together. “You're drinking apple juice.”

This guys frowned a lot, didn't he? It was kinda amusing to watch, his changes of expression said a lot. “So what? I can't enjoy a party because I don't drink alcohol like you do?”

Max raised an eyebrow and he was already retorting without a second thought “You don't like parties, dude.” Or that's as much as he had noticed, if he was mistaken the ginger must have a really strange view of what 'fun' was. Max internally gulped when he saw those blue eyes widening with surprise at his comment.

Then the guy was back to frowning, moving his head to look at nothing in particular in the dim-lit room. “How would you know? You don't even know me.”

His hands were already grabbing the first seat next to the ginger before he even got to finish that sentence.
“Well, that can be solved, can't it?” He extended his hand in between them, waiting for the other to shake. “I'm Max.”

He looked at Max's hand, hesitation showing on his face before raising his gaze back up to him. Max tightened his lips and wiggled his hand still maintaining eye contact, trying to convey that he was growing impatient. The ginger finally cracked a smile -'Please, do that again.'- and shook his hand. “Isaac.”

He became friends with Isaac and after just some days of knowing him he had learned that the ginger was just as goody goody as he thought but also that he was just as sarcastic as him, which was surprising. They shared the same sense of humour most of the time, well, when he wasn't being snarky at the ginger that is.
After some months passed, Max also learned that Isaac had the habit of always thinking about all the possible bad outcomes when making a decision. Max would bet the guy would drown in his own worries if someone didn't make him snap out of it. Sometimes he thinks that not even Isaac himself knows what he wants, it was like watching him fight with himself against the idea of doing what he wants to maintain the "innocent guy" facade that Max already knows he isn't.
And then those months became years and Max started to find every little detail his friend made interesting.

What could he say? Max liked Isaac's company. He liked it a lot. Their personalities melded so well he didn't really notice when they exactly became best friends.

And yes, maybe he started all this because of physical attraction, but that was long forgotten. Now there isn't a trace from it. Not even a little.
Isaac just became another person in his friend count, just a good friend like Johnny and company were.

That's a lie and you know it. You've opened up more to Isaac. And as much as you enjoy spending time with the others, you sometimes feel a little overwhelmed. This is isn't the same.
Not right now, brain.

His phone vibrated, noticing a new message. Perfect, he would rather think about something else.
Max opened his flip phone, reading the name reflected on the screen and hesitated before writing a reply.

'Johnny: yo where did u go after Violets party last night
we didnt even see u get out of the house

You: aren't you supposed to be in class right now

Johnny: isnt your boyfriend supposed to be wearing his own clothes right now'

Max immediately looked over at the clothes hanging on the clothing dryer rack near his bedroom window, they seemed to be already dry from last night's events. They must have been still damp when Isaac woke up so... Oh god, he really did turn up to school with Max's clothes.
He didn't realise he had put his face in his hands until he felt the vibration of another message from his friend who seemed interested to know what happened last night. He groaned, taking back the phone to write a brief summary, because he knows Johnny must have thought of God knows what when he saw Isaac with his clothes. He just wishes the redhead would drop that already. The subject about Max having a crush -'Yeah, sure, "a crush". Keep telling yourself that, Max.'- on Isaac stopped being funny to him when he realised he probably -'definitely'- did.
Damnit, he just told himself he wasn't going to think about this.
He huffed, hitting 'send' once he wrote the message in his phone.

'Johnny: r u serious
jfc man now i dont know even if I wanna invite u to my place

You: what?

Johnny: parents messaged me
theyll be away for some days

You: dude we just had a party yesterday

Johnny: and?
oh my god dont tell me you cant handle another one now thats hilarious
ginger boy has made you weak'

Max frowned. Of course he could handle it, he's been doing this for a long time now. Sure, maybe these last two years Isaac's lifestyle has brushed onto him, it's what happens when you have a best friend.
And inviting Isaac to every party he went to had became an usual thing between them. He would invite the other and they would either play the game of Max trying his best to convince Isaac to go with him or Max would have decided already he was going; which sometimes ended up with Isaac sighing and saying he was going "so he doesn't do anything stupid".
Other times it ended with Isaac looking up at him with tired eyes in silence and Max already thinking on the excuse he was going to give to the host of the party the next day concerning why he didn't go without telling he had, in fact, ended up playing Monopoly or watching a movie with his nerd of a friend that night because he couldn't say no to that face for the life of him.
....Whatever, he was going to go, no matter Isaac's response.
Even if he knew it would be much more enjoyable if he went with him.

'You: shut up I can handle it
its isaac who's gonna die.

Johnny: u know what I meant
anyway invite ginger boy if u want
just dont make those corny shows in my rooftop like u did in that pool'

Max rolled his eyes and closed his phone as he walked towards Isaac's clothes to touch them. Fortunately, they were dry just how he hoped. Now he just needed something to put them inside so he could give it to Isaac...
Wait, he lived in a corner store, right.
Max turned, took a few steps forward and nearly opened his bedroom door before realising: he should be in school right now. His father was most likely at the counter. If he went down to get a plastic bag, he'd have to give an excuse to his father as to why he didn't attend to his classes today. Max really didn't want to do that.
He groaned, already knowing what the other alternative was and glanced at his window.

He put Isaac's clothes inside his backpack, hanging the sling in one arm and opening the window with the other. Sticking his head out and looking at the concrete floor below him, hesitation started to grow. It's been sometime since he actually done this. Isaac would kill him if he saw him doing it. Well, he would have already killed him for waking up this late anyway. Without eating anything either. He looked back at the door. If his father was under-stairs he probably wouldn't see him when walking towards the kitchen.
...Nah, it was already too late to have breakfast, it would be better if he waited for lunch at this point.
His thoughts started to drift away. Did Isaac have breakfast this morning? The ginger always called Max out on his bad behaviours while he basically did the same like the hypocrite he was. Maybe he had some loose change in his backpack, would that be enough to buy something to eat?

A sudden pain in one of his ankles made Max lose his balance and hit the concrete with his knee.
...He should have been more focused when jumping from the window.
Max sat ungracefully on the floor and groaned at the sight of a slight scratch on his knee. It wasn't too deep, just enough for it to let out some blood but it didn't look that bad and it didn't hurt either. Bad day to decide to wear ripped jeans though.
Max got up, brushing away any dust that could have gotten when sitting on the ground.

He walked some streets near his high school before stopping in front of the small supermarket that was on the other side. Max hummed while thinking, he wasn't going to give Isaac his clothes back with his backpack, he needed the plastic bag. Would it be impolite to walk inside just to ask for a bag and leave?
“Of course it is, jerk.” His inner Isaac voice said and Max rolled his eyes. When did his friend become the first person he thought about when making a decision?
He opened his backpack and searched on the inner pockets, where he kept money if he ever had. A smile grew in his face when he noticed some dollars inside. Perfect.

He might as well buy an energy drink for Isaac. Max can already imagine the tired face he was going to met up with once the ginger gets out of class.

Chapter Text

The walk to school depended on various things. Usually, Isaac would wait while walking along with Isabel in a comfortable silence until some streets forward where they met Ed to actually start a conversation. It was like a silent agreement between the two, the five minutes of silence to take in today's plans and get ready to hide the wings attached to their backs for the rest of the day.

“I can't believe you talked back to grandpa like that.” Today though, it appeared they had a subject to talk about. Or in this case, a subject only Isabel wanted to talk about. “Look at you, being the rebellious angel you try so hard to convince yourself you aren't.”

“What was I thinking...” Isaac muttered arms crossed with his eyes affixed to the floor he walked on.
He bit his lip and tried to contain the need to keep talking before groaning and unfolding his arms. “But it’s so frustrating! Apparently, Max isn't allowed to have friends? Or it looks like it by Guerra’s standards; which is stupid! Maybe I don't like them but what can I do about it? It would be like... Like—” He looked at the ground, his lip again locked between his teeth and sighed. “I'm doing something wrong.” He said in a much lower tone, the feather he quietly touched inside his pocket when he stuffed his hands inside them being proof that his statement wasn't wrong.
Something went wrong along the way.

And God it was scary to think of all the possible reasons of what it could be.

Isabel glanced at Isaac as silence seeped between them, the only thing breaking it being their steps against the sidewalk. Then, she sighed and put one hand on Isaac's shoulder. “Listen, dude. Who's Max's angel? Grandpa or you?”

Isaac stayed in silence for a moment before answering “Me.”

“Have you noticed that Max has been getting better in general?” Hesitation shined in his eyes, nevertheless he nodded. “Then tell me what you're so scared about, ‘cause it's definitely not my grandpa.” He graced the feather with his index finger. Should he tell her?
...No. Isabel has been one of his best friends for years now and she was as trustworthy as somebody could get, but with this subject in particular Isaac didn't have any idea how the girl might react.
If more feathers were to fall —which won't and can't happen again— then he would ask Isabel for help.

He shrugged before looking up and realising Isabel won’t let the subject go until she gets and actual answer. “Did you hear what he said when he told us to go?” He swallowed and looked back to the ground frowning. “Something about our wings?”

Isabel hissed as if it were painful just imagining something happening to said limb before letting out some nervous chuckles. “I don't think we're doing that bad of a job, Isaac.” She bumped his arm with her elbow playfully and Isaac nearly let out a dry laugh that he covered up with a cough.

“So you think that's why they would fall? Because of doing a bad job?”

“Well, that's kind of—...? There's a wide-range of things that could be considered that.” She dangled one strand of her hair, thoughtful before shrugging. “My guess is that they fall by becoming a bad person —angel? By being bad.” She finished, shrugging.

Wh—? Isaac has been nothing but a good person this past two years! If anything he’s been helping Max into becoming one as well.
He scrunched his nose and looked at the houses they passed by, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible when asking “And that’s your only idea?”

“Hey, I'm not a teacher. And you know how Mr. Spender gets when we mention it. There aren’t many hypotheses I can come up with when all the answers we get are “don’t ask about that Isabel, you know it isn’t allowed to bring up that kind of subject!”.” She imitated their teacher’s voice in an exaggerated high pitched way, making Isaac snort.

Now that he remembered, “he’s been acting kinda weird lately.”

Isabel waved her hand in a dismissing manner. “Yeah, but he's Mr. S, knowing him we shouldn't worry.”

Isaac stared before letting his eyes dance around their surrounding as he bit his lip in hesitation, trying to decide if he should mention what he heard when getting out of his friend’s house. “...I heard master Guerra—”

“You mean when you were eavesdropping behind the door?” Isabel asked mockingly with a knowing smirk.

Yeah, reminding Isaac of every little bad action he had been doing lately? Not really his cup of tea. “Yes, I heard master Guerra telling him something about a decision.” He said frowning.

“Decision? What decision?”

“How should I know, Isabel?” He said dryly, continuing to walk in silence beside his friend and sinking his hands even deeper down his pockets. “You called me before I could hear more.”

The brunette poked Isaac’s cheek with her index finger, still smirking “Don’t be so grumpy, it’s not my fault you’re a hopeless case you know?”

Isaac maintained eye contact before giving in and letting a small smile grow on his face while he swatted Isabel’s hand away making the girl chuckle.
They looked up when they seemed to be reaching the street where they always met up with Ed and affirmatively, the blond stood there waving from the other street.

“There’s your small devil.” Isaac commented making Isabel snort.

“Ah, yes. My lil’ devil. Wonder where your demon is.” She laughed again watching Isaac narrow his eyes and starting to pout.

“On his way to class I sure hope so.” He knew he shouldn’t hope too much.
When Isaac woke up to head out to Isabel's house, he remembered the brunet being out cold. He tried to wake him up by shaking his sleeping body but it ended up being fruitless. In fact, if he was realistic, Isaac would place his bets that the brunet would wake up at minimum 1PM.

“What are you guys talking about?” Ed said once they had walked past the street that separated them.

“Stuff.” Isaac answered simply.

The blond nodded, expression unreadable as he looked at the ginger up and down before commenting “Nice clothes.”

A loud groan came out of Isaac while he sharply made a turn to continue his path being accompanied by Isabel’s laugh.

The girl slid an arm around Ed’s shoulders, making him walk along with them and gave a wide smile being returned with a toothy one from the boy. “Ready for the test, my pupil?”

“Your hours spent on my success will not be wasted on an unsatisfactory mark, my master.” Even from a couple steps forward Isaac could still hear the loud exaggerated voice of the blond.

“That's what I like to hear!” He watched from the corner of his eyes how Isabel immediately tucked Ed in a headlock, ruffling his hair. Both of them laughing as Ed didn't make any attempt to try to get out of the girl's grip.

And as Isaac walked beside them a few steps forward, hearing their laughs, and their inside jokes, and the shine in their eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder... Why would basically all of their kind be afraid of that?
Isabel was happy, and judging by Ed’s mirrored smile he was as well. What was so bad about this?

Excuse him for asking but he needed a good answer for why should they be afraid of happiness because, if he was honest, neither of them planned on stopping any time soon. Not as long as it didn’t make any sense to do so.

Every students beloved lunch time came in. Shoulders were being pushed, teenagers were screaming and all Isaac wanted was to recognise the shape of his friends sitting somewhere around the absolute hell that was the cafeteria.

Two years ago, Isaac was used to just being by himself or stay with Isabel during lunch period.
And now it wasn't much different but now they had Ed’s friendly accompaniment, and sometimes Max if he felt like leaving his usual group of friends. Though, just like he expected, today it appears that Isaac only had the blond and the girls company today. He hadn't seen Max at all since this morning.

Isaac slid his lunch tray against the table in front of his pair of friends who directed their gazes to him as he sat down on the bench opposite to them with a small greeting.
“He really didn't come today, huh?”

Isabel straightened her back trying to look past his shoulder and smirked. “Judging by the stares the Jang is giving you right now, I will take a guess and say no.”

Remembering the face Max's sister had made today when Isaac came out of her brother’s room, wearing the brunet’s clothes since his were still drying, he could guess the expression Max's friends had plastered on their faces while looking at him too. Why must he have so many black clothes? Isaac nearly rolled his eyes, hearing Max's comeback in his head: “Why must you complain about everything I do?”

He contained his curiosity to look over his back, poking his food with his fork. “Let's hope they ignore me and ask Max the questions later like usual.”

“Yeah, right now you have to answer our questions.” Putting his elbows on the table and tangling his fingers together, Ed propped his head on his hands with a grin. Isaac lifted an eyebrow confused.

“Didn't we tell you we were going to that party at Violet's house?”

“Yeah, but how was it?”

Isaac shrugged. “Fine, I guess.”

“You guess? Dude, why do you go if you don't even like them?”

“I do like them!” He retorted way too quickly to justify himself.

“No ya’ don’t!”

“Yes, I do!” He shifted his glance to Isabel for help, coincidentally she seemed to be taking the slowest bite of her sandwich right now. Yeah, leave him to sweat alone why don’t you.

“Okay, fine, you like parties. What did you do in there then?” Ed asked and Isaac tried especially hard not to frown when trying to recall anything fun he did last night. His face betrayed him sadly. “See?” A victorious smile appeared in the blond’s face while pointing at Isaac’s expression.

Before Isaac could dig himself a bigger hole, Isabel had finally decided to take pity on the ginger’s poor excuses. “Max threw him into a pool clothes and all though” she commented

“Well, that explains...” He gestured to the entirety of Isaac, making him hide his hands in his pockets in embarrassment. “I guess it looks strange ‘cause that one’s his favourite.” The blond’s hand stopped pointing at the black hoodie.

Isaac’s eyes widened before looking down. “This isn’t his favourite one” It couldn’t be, even if he didn’t have any proof of that.

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yeah, it is.” This time it was Isabel while taking another bite of her sandwich. Isaac didn’t know if it was just to side with Ed (who didn’t erase his know-it-all smile at any time) and see Isaac sweat or to make them stop playing the same game of arguing back and forth the second time. Whichever it was she looked far too delighted.

A comfortable silence grew between the three of them, well, comfortable for Isabel and Ed, Isaac was too busy throwing daggers at the seemingly oblivious girl.

“Oh! Now that Isaac is here, I can make an announcement.” The boy clapped his hands together suddenly bouncing in his seat non-stop while looking at both of his friends.

Isabel hit her hands on the table sharing the boy’s excitement. “Right! You've been making me wait since lunch time started!” The girl turned her full attention to the blond, who kept shaking his hands with anticipation.

“Guess who knew all the questions on his history test!” Singsonged Ed opening his arms and grinning from ear to ear. Isabel instantly wrapped her arms around his shoulders moving from side to side way too fast considering Ed’s glasses where falling off his smiling face.

“See? I told you, you could do it!”

Isaac didn’t even need to see the proudness glinting in the girl’s brown eyes to know she shared the blond’s happiness or even more. And she had all the right to. If Isaac remembered correctly the blond had been avoiding studies like the plague when Isabel had met him. His case wasn’t at all similar to Max’s though. Max doesn’t study because he is, irritatingly, a know-it-all with a smartass attitude.
Ed didn’t study because he hadn’t had any motivation to. With no dreams or goals, or any ideas for the future, Ed hadn’t even wanted to think about planning anything that wasn’t related to the present time. Universities, colleges, final exams... Those were all future Ed’s problems. And with every day that kept passing, the more he was getting used to seeing no light at the end of the tunnel.

Going from that to this was a huge step. And Isaac had been surprised when Isabel had brought up the blond to their table without any questions but he now realises she wouldn’t have helped Ed come so far otherwise.
Ed had needed friends to motivate him and to show the best he could do, and lord help them if they weren’t going to be those friends.

Isaac smiled waiting for the teenagers to calm down so he could join in with them in the celebration they had created in their small table in the cafeteria.

Time started to pass faster after that or maybe he had fallen asleep on his desk in the next period and hadn’t even noticed, but the sound of the school bell echoing through the halls informing of the classes’ end took Isaac by surprise. Nevertheless he wasn’t going to say no to the opportunity of going home and taking a full long rest.
Isabel and Ed exited the school building along with Isaac talking lively before they had to go on their separate ways to either Ed’s or Isabel’s house, they seemed to be discussing it still.

It was when Isaac took a turn on the next street when his eyes lit up, recognising a familiar figure in the distance. He walked faster and frowned when a small trail of smoke came out of the other person.

“Max.” He snatched the cigarette out of Max's mouth, getting another frown in return from the punk.

“Isaac.” He said as he reached to grab the cancer stick back and clicked his tongue when Isaac threw it on the ground before stepping on it.

“You seriously need to stop doing this.”

“I only smoke when I'm bored and you were taking a long time to appear.”

“Can't you find something else to do to kill time?”

“Hey, I kill time while killing my lungs, two birds with one stone.” The brunet hissed when he felt Isaac elbow him on the side.

“Not funny.”

Isaac moved his eyes up and down his companion before extending his open palm towards Max, who raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Where's the rest?”

“Isaac, please,” he slung his arms lifelessly on each side of his body, “I just bought them.”

Completely ignoring the plead Isaac searched inside the front pockets of Max’s jeans as the other groaned. Finding nothing in the front he moved his hands quickly taking the small box of cigarettes from his back pocket.
Opening it he was quite surprised when it basically contained all the cigarettes to fill the box.

“You really did just buy them, huh?” He couldn’t help but let his disappointment show in his voice. Usually if the box was nearly empty it meant he had borrowed it from someone in the gang, but the fact that this time he bought them... Now he was going to feel guilty of what he was about to do. “How much do these even cost anyway?”

Max shrugged lazily “Around seven dollars?”

“Seven d—?!”

The most exaggerated sigh possible came out of Max as he took some steps away from the ginger not even waiting for him to finish his sentence. He propped his arms on the railing, his eyes were on the landscape before them but Isaac knew it was just Max’s way of ignoring him.

Lowering his hand he didn’t even realise he was articulating with, Isaac decided to walk towards his friend, standing silently beside the other boy. His eyes lingered from the cardboard box he fidgeted with his hands to Max’s face.
He decided to look at the mountains in front of them too when Max didn’t meet his gaze.

“I’m just saying, you could buy... I don’t know, snacks or something with that much.”

“Mhm.” Max searched inside the plastic bag by his arm, taking out a can of energy drink and drinking a few gulps.
Isaac tried to not stare, biting his tongue from the advice he felt the need to say. Energy was the last thing Max needed considering his sudden bursts of hyperactivity from time to time.

Thankfully, right after he swallowed his face scrunched up like he had tasted lemon. “This is way too sweet on it’s own.” He said, handing the drink to Isaac unceremoniously.

“On it’s own?” Isaac mumbled taking a sip of the drink. Max snickered silently.

“Keep it. This also.”

Isaac stared at the cereal bar Max had got out of his bag, dangling it in his hand in front of his face. “For me?” He asked taking it.

“I mean I was planning on eating it if you didn’t want it.”

The memory of him letting Max take a bite out of one and him saying it tasted like grass passed through his mind. “Liar, you don’t even like these.” Of course, Max ignored him and started to walk making Isaac jog to catch up beside him.
Isaac made an attempt trying to reach to the backpack behind his back but realised he wouldn’t be able to do anything with both his hands full. “Hold this for me for a second?” He extended the energy drink to his friend who took it without any question.
“I think this is enough.” With his hands now free Isaac had managed to get a few dollar bills from his backpack. As he brought up his money, Max looked down at it with a glare.

“I don’t need that.”

“I was already planning on giving it either way, take it.” When Max still made no sign of moving, the ginger rolled his eyes while moving closer and forcefully stuck the few dollars inside the pockets of his pants taking advantage of knowing Max wouldn’t be able to move too fast to not spill the drink. It might sound like an easy task but with Max’s annoyed growling and tongue clicking it was more similar to sticking your head inside a lion’s mouth while trying to come out alive.

One of the tricks to not dying was showing the lion your confidence in being sure they weren’t going to bite though.
...Is that how it worked? Isaac hoped that was how it worked.

The ginger took a few steps away from Max, sighing and putting his hands on his hips. Max extended both his arms, drink somehow still in hand and frown plastered in his face.

“Satisfied?”

“Yes, thank you for your cooperation.”

“You are aware you just gave me back the money I spent and therefore, could buy another box of cigarettes if I wanted to, right?”

“Yes, but” Isaac put one hand on his hip, turning to the railing “I had already made my decision and didn’t want to feel guilty about it.”

“Guilty about wh—?”

Isaac gripped tightly the cardboard in his hands before throwing it down the hill with as much strength as he could muster. The object flipped in the air as it fell deep down the hill until it seemed to hit the concrete on the ground below.

Max’s wide eyes kept staring at the ground where the cigarettes might have fell on, it wasn’t possible to see from their distance anymore. He slowly turned his head silently staring at Isaac, his expression never changing before finally opening his mouth. “Wow, littering? What kind of messed up mom friend are you?”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “Whatever, someone will probably find it and keep it. Won’t be difficult for them to notice it's full.”

“So you don't care if someone smokes as far as that someone isn't me?”

“...Gimme my drink back.”

Max handed the can back to Isaac not before chugging another gulp of the sweet drink as he grimaced. The ginger held the drink, an unamused expression on his face. “If you end up as worryingly energised as Ed during pizza day in the cafeteria it won’t be my fault.”

Max rolled his eyes and scratched the back of his neck before asking “How did Ed's test go?”

Isaac smiled as he reminisced “Oh, he's been yelling about it all day. Praising Isabel's help as usual.” Max chuckled along with him and Isaac drifted back to his thoughts, letting his head hang back as he sighed. “He was so nervous about that test. I’m happy for him.”

Max stared as they walked silently. “...But?”

Isaac rubbed his hand against his arm avoiding his friend’s gaze. “But maybe I’m slightly jealous.”

Max nodded. “...Maths again?”

The ginger let his head hang low in a defeated stance. “Maths again.”

Max joined in the sigh, brushing Isaac’s hair all the way back without even looking. His small way of telling him to stop looking at the ground. “I don't know how math is difficult to you. It seems so easy and I'm one grade lower.”

Isaac tried to brush his hair back into place while he waited for the sudden shivers he felt from his neck down end. “This is why I never appreciate your teaching, Max.”

“I could be the Isabel to your Ed but you playin'.” He said making Isaac laugh.

“So you just came here to see me and make fun of my math skills or what?” Isaac asked before having the plastic bag his friend held pressed against his face.

“I came here to bring you your clothes back. Your germs were starting to fill my house, I could feel the start of the first symptoms wash all over me,” he smirked at the sight of Isaac’s crossed arms and raised eyebrow waiting for him to finish before saying, “the willingness to get anywhere near the school building.”

Isaac huffed, taking a look inside the bag before gripping the handles of it. “Fine but I'll give yours back later. I'm not going to change in the middle of the street.” Max made a mocking sound of disappointment and chuckled when Isaac bumped his elbow against his.

“So...” Oh god, Isaac didn't like that voice. That was Max trying to sound casual without realising it had a suspicious tone in his words. “I know you probably feel tired from yesterday...”

“Very.” He added looking up seeing Max scratch his nose.

“Right... Well, so I woke up this morning and before I got out-...”

“You mean before you jumped out of your window like an animal?”

Max frowned, his head turning to Isaac, eyes tightening. “...No.”

Isaac pointed at his jeans, raising an eyebrow. “Max, look at your legs.”

Max looked down and pretended to not notice his scraped right knee. He smirked. “This is called fashion, Isaac. Haven't you heard of ripped jeans?” He definitely has wore a pair before, not that Max was going to forget that sight anytime soon. But that was off the point and he was supposed to keep up this act for the sake of the joke.

Isaac groaned while rolling his eyes. “You know what? Sure, that’s what you get for skipping school anyway.”

“Hate to break it to you but not everyone is some otherworldly creature who can wake up early after going to sleep at literally 4AM. Nice eye-bags by the way.”

“Whose fault is it I have them?”

“Ah, yes! It’s totally my fault you finally decided to have fun, officer!” Max brought up his hands in front of him, putting both his wrists together as if expecting to be cuffed. “Guilty as charged. Finally gonna be able to sleep at night now?”

Isaac frowned, his glare connecting with Max’s mocking one, both of them in a complete tense silence.
Well, it wasn’t tense per se. Isaac knew he took things too much at heart but Max also should this know by now, which makes Isaac thinks he only teases for the sake of getting on Isaac’s nerves and honestly it wouldn’t be surprising because Maxwell Puckett was in fact a jerk, and childish, and—

“You’re confusing having fun with being irresponsible.” Isaac finally said breaking away from his thoughts before he managed to get himself shooting steam from his head even more. He pushed Max arms away meaning to start to walk again only to realise the brunet moved quickly enough to stand in front of him again leaning slightly forward, maintaining eye contact with Isaac and smirking probably satisfied for the comeback he was about to say.

“You wouldn’t be able to be irresponsible even if you fucking tried, O’Connor.” It was when Isaac shifted his gaze in embarrassment that Max decided to turned back to start walking again. “You would rather drag me out of a party yourself before your ‘Too-many-people. Gotta-go-home’ alarms get set off. I know it’s the anxiety, I forgive you but” Max looked over his shoulder and the ginger noticed how he still wore the mocking grin, eyes shining with a glint of amusement “I’m just teaching you it’s okay to loosen up at least a bit, it’s all.” He shrugged waiting for the boy to catch up to start walking beside him again.

“I didn’t ask you to.” Isaac said still scowling with his gaze never moving from the floor below him.

“Didn’t ask you to try to teach me how to be a normal human being either.” Max patted his shoulder as Isaac tried to hide the smile starting to grow in his lips from the boy’s field of vision. It vanished when he jumped, suddenly feeling Max leaning beside his ear. “You got on this ride, to get to your destination you gotta pay the ticket.”

It would be more like Isaac got shoved into the ride without any warning at all and he decided he might as well get comfortable. But sure that analogy worked too.

“The ticket is way too expensive.”

“Listen to my metaphors when I speak, Isaac. Already on the ride. Can’t get out now.” Max said as Isaac scoffed.
Silence grew between them for a couple of steps before Max started again “Which means...”

Here we go again. Isaac felt tempted to not even ask this time just to not hear whatever Max’s suspicious voice tone was about to say.

“...Which means—?”

“Go to Johnny’s party with me.”

“Goodbye.” Isaac turned trying to bolt to his house only for Max to get a hold his sleeve, chuckling.

“Alright, alright. At least listen to me, will you?” He took the silence and expecting glare from Isaac as a sign to continue. He took a deep breath. “Johnny's parents are going to be out of town tomorrow and—”

“No.”

“Aw, c'mon! You've never been to his house! He's got this cool rooftop and you can basically see the whole town from there! I know you like those!”

“No! I still feel dirty for walking on my tip toes around your house so we didn't wake anyone up yesterday. I'm not doing that again.”

Max smirked. “So you're already planning on staying over again? Sweet.”

“I'm not planning on doing anything because I'm not going.”

Max clicked his tongue. “Do what you want then.” He looked down when he felt Isaac's eyes on him and groaned. “Stop doing that.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Doing what?”

“You're pouting.”

“I'm not!”

“Listen, I'm going to Johnny's okay?” The silence between them was only confronted by the sound of their footsteps hitting against the pavement. “Going there wether you like it or not.”

“Okay! I didn't even say anything anyway!” Isaac’s vision became dark when Max pushed the hoodie onto his head, pulling the strings all the way and tying them together. His hand slung over his hands lifelessly, accepting his fate of total darkness.
If Isaac was being honest, the hoodie smelled nice.
He turned to where he supposed Max was, not even bothering to try to untie the hoodie. “I hate you, you know.”

Isaac felt a pat on his back followed with a “Of course you do.”
He finally decided to reach to the strings, untangling them enough to get the hood of his eyes, revealing his scowl underneath. He tugged slightly at the part that still remained covering from the bridge of his nose down as he took a deep breath to let out a heavy sigh. The action reminded him he should ask later what cologne did Max use.
...Did Max even use cologne? And if he did use it, it wouldn’t cling on the piece of clothing this much unless he wore it a lot right?

“...Max, which is your favourite hoodie?” Let it be known he wasn’t thinking about the comments from Ed and Isabel when he asked this, alright? This was just utter curiosity.

When Isaac had no response, he assumed Max had decided to ignore the question and he left it at that. But when he heard a light “Mhm...” from the brunet, Isaac realised that the confused frown in his face wasn’t because he was questioning the reason of such an out of the blue subject but because he was actually trying to decide on an answer.
Like he was analysing every little detail of each of his hoodie by memory.

Isaac saw his eyes linger to the one he was wearing. His favourite band’s logo in the front, decorating the completely black hoodie... Hell, he would bet black was Max’s favourite colour too.

“...The light grey one.”

Isaac couldn’t help but tilt his head to the side showing his confusion. “Took you a long time to answer.”

“I have a lot of hoodies, Isaac.”

“That we can agree on.” He returned the push when he felt Max leaning exaggeratedly to his side as if trying to make him fall off the road, chuckling alongside the brunet.

The comfortable silence of his room welcomed him as Isaac walked inside his bedroom. Sighing, he let the plastic bag with his clothes fall from his grasp to end on the floor by the entrance before stretching his arms above his head. The need to let himself fall onto his bed and recuperate the hours of sleep he hadn’t took last night washed over him.
A pout wanted to grow on his lips when Isaac realised he probably should take his friend’s black hoodie off to sleep.

‘Who says you have to?’ He bit his lip before shaking his head lively while taking a hold of the hood on the back and burying half his face in it in embarrassment.
He tried to repress the delighted giggle that wanted to come out of his lips when he recognised the familiar scent in the clothing.

Alright, enough of... whatever this was. He was exhausted.

He hummed feeling his wings start to stretch when he took the clothing off his torso.

And then time froze, his blood turned cold when he felt the breath of something brushing his back and fall on the floor. The soft and warm pace his heart rate was in changed radically to a excruciatingly fast one.

They scattered everywhere.

Half of his bedroom floor became covered in feathers and all Isaac could do was look. He didn't know for how long he stared but he realised he wasn't breathing at a normal pace and soon gasps of air took it's place.
When did—...? Why? How?

God, he needed to clean this mess if someone found out—
His gaze unconsciously trailed up to the mirror attached to the wall. The strangled scream that was making its way up his throat ceased when the steps he didn’t realise he was taking backwards made him hit his back against the corner of his closet. He would have hissed hadn’t he been so busy trying to process all the different types of thoughts that were passing through his mind, drowning him.

He jerked his head to the side, trying to look at the appendages in his back like a sad imitation of a dog chasing it’s tail.
He probably knocked against some of his furniture in his trance, the fog taking over his sight wasn’t helping.
The tug Isaac felt on his back said he finally had caught his wings. The touch he felt under his fingers made him wish hadn’t.

Bones.
What he saw in his reflection where bones, protruding at the base right where his wings curved. Where once was the soft touch of white feathers there were now dry harsh bones.

His phone was ringing.

Desperate inhales for just a little bit of oxygen made the task to take his phone out of his pocket nearly impossible. Specially in the uncomfortable position he was against the wall. When did he sit in the floor? His knees felt weak.

Not even looking at the name in the screen he answered the phone, his hand gripping onto it like his life depended on it.

“Hey! Isaac! Listen, me and Ed are going to the arcade’s later and-.” He tried to focus on the voice on the other line but he couldn't take his eyes off the floor. Why was this happening? This wasn't supposed to happen. One feather wasn't noticeable but this... There were so many of them...
“Isaac, are you there?” He tried to say something but it only came out as a whimper. “Hey what's wrong?” She was starting to worry, he could hear it in the girl's voice and Isaac did his best to talk through the noose that had already formed inside his throat.

“Isabel.” Isaac tried to ignore how his voice cracked with every word that came out of his mouth. “Please, I need your help.”

Chapter Text

Isaac didn't know how long he stayed on the line with Isabel talking to him and asking questions while shouting she was getting as fast as she could towards his house, but thank god she didn't live too far away from him. The girl narrating what she was doing actually helped him breathe.
If Isaac focused on her voice he would stop thinking about the cause of his distress laying by his feet.

The voice talking against his ear automatically muffled in his head when Issac started to hear steps outside his house.

He looked behind him when his bedroom window opened with a slam, the sudden force making all the feathers in the floor move everywhere around the room.
Right, there was no other way Isabel could have gotten inside since she didn’t have a key to his house.

Isabel's eyes were the widest Isaac has ever seen them look as they darted from each corner of his room with increasing surprise every time. He instinctually folded his wings as much as he could to hide them against his back. Picking up the call at all was starting to feel like a big mistake.

“What happened here?” Isabel whispered so lowly that Isaac didn't know if it was a question directed to him or to herself. “Woah, woah. Okay, hey.” Hands touched his shoulders. “Isaac, look at me.” Suddenly, raising his blue eyes from the floor was being an extremely difficult task. His bedroom floor, that was covered in so many white feathers...
“Breathe.” What? When did he stop breathing? Brown eyes looked at him in a calm manner and he tried his best to follow Isabel's instructions. “There we go, relax. It's okay.” His breath hitched. It wasn't okay, it wasn't—

“Isabel, I don't know why—...” The girl shushed him, which wasn’t really necessary seeing how his hyperventilation was already keeping him from talking coherently and ending his sentences correctly.

“Me neither. But let’s not freak out about it, okay? When did this happen?” Isaac’s eyes widened at the question, instantly trying to avoid the eyes that had brought him back from his state seconds ago. “Isaac, please...”

He opened his mouth and quickly closed it. His hands would be trembling had it not been for the hard grip he had on his fingers, he could still remember the dry feeling of his fingertips touching bone— “Last night... It was only one but... But now I don't...”

“Yesterday?” Isabel cut his sentence. Her grip on his shoulders became stronger as she made the boy look at her. “Your wings started to fall since yesterday and you didn’t tell me anything?”

Glassy blue eyes starting to turn red from the tears fully returned her stare as Isaac suddenly raised his head to look at Isabel. “Starting to—?! I never expected it to continue!” His stutter gave away how hard it was to put into words the thoughts in his head. His shoulders tensed. “And—... And please tell me exactly how was I supposed to bring this up to you? You’d just start to—!” He cut off his sentence before ending it, letting out a faltering exhale.

Isabel silently brought her hands to her head, tangling her fingers to brown strands of hair. Then, she moved them down to her face, rubbing her eyelids. “I would start to what, Isaac?” The calmness that she was trying to maintain in her tone of voice only added to the already heavy tension in the air.

Isaac swallowed and bit his lip, this time unable to look at the girl in the eyes as he talked lowly. “We are taught feathers aren’t supposed to fall since early age. You... you would've wanted to ask someone for help or...”

Isabel scoffed trying her best to not let out a hysterical laugh “Ask who exactly? My grandpa? Zarei?”

Isaac raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it by a sudden pang in his head which made him bring his hand to his forehead. He stuttered trying to remember his words already forgotten because of the painful headache throbbing against his ears. “I don’t know, Isabel! I— I was scared!”

Isabel restrained herself from keeping the argument going and instead decided to inhale deeply and let out the air she held slowly. Then, giving another look around the room and looking back down at Isaac, she sat on the floor right in front of him, trying her best to gently swipe the feathers away from the spot to not crush them.

Isabel's hands reached for Isaac’s trembling ones giving them a squeeze so the boy could look at her. “Do you have any idea how this could have happened?”

Returning the squeeze, Isaac mimicked the action the girl did, keeping air in his lungs and letting it out again before licking his dried lips and thinking of an answer.

That’s right, if Isabel was here it was because she cared, she seemed just as worried as he was. They would both try to find a solution to this problem. But he had to do his part for this to work.

“That's the problem. I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, I just spent time with Max...” He said, his voice finally having the steadiness it had been searching for.

She bit her lip and Isaac managed to raise an eyebrow because of the face she made. The girl only gave him that expression when he wasn't going to like what he was going to hear. “Isaac, I know you get along with Max but... You don't do anything... Bad, do you?” She questioned and Isaac instantly scoffed, taking his hands away from Isabel’s grip.

“Yeah, we shoplift stores for alcohol and drugs, didn’t you know?” He answered with a sudden sharp voice, it’s sarcasm overflowing every word.

“Isaac.”

The daggers in Isaac’s eyes softened when he realized the venom in his voice seconds ago. His gaze apologetically moved from the girl to his hands, picking at the cuticles from one of his fingers.
“I’m sorry. But see? This is what I meant. You think—! I'm not a bad person, Isabel! And he isn’t either.” With a quick movement, Isaac stood up only to sit on his bed, covering his face with his hands as he propped his elbows on his knees.

The girl silently stared at the boy from her position in the floor, before sighing and slowly scooting her way until she sat beside Isaac’s bed and reached for the boy’s forearm, soothingly caressing it with her thumb. “I know. I'm sorry... But this started because of something, dude.”

The ginger shook his head, hands still in place until he slightly lifted his head just enough to be able to talk properly. “I just want this to be over.”

He just wanted to go back to yesterday when all he was worried about was on whether Max would care about Isaac wearing his clothes to school.

A nudge on his shoulder made Isaac come back from his thoughts, meeting the empathetic smile from Isabel, who had gotten back up on her feet. “C’mon, put on a shirt. Let’s... clean all of this, shall we?”

Both of them cleaned Isaac's room in silence. With every swipe of the broom Isaac couldn't help but feel his shame increase at the big amount of feathers each swipe gathered.
He didn't let himself dwell on it too long.

Isabel was okay with this, or if she wasn't, she knew Isaac couldn't help it.
He really couldn't.

His task came to a stop when he noticed the black hoodie messily laying on his bedroom floor, contrasting against the white-coloured feathers that had fallen along with it. It had been there since Isabel had come.

He glanced at the plastic bag by his door.

Placing the black cloth around his arm he reached for the bag and let the clothes inside that belonged to him messily drop on top of his bed. Then, he carelessly stuffed the hoodie inside and tossed the plastic bag again by his door-frame, going back to sweeping without much of a word.

Hearing the resounding 'clank' of the aluminium lid hitting the garbage bin was what made him come back from his thoughts again. What? When did–?
Oh, right. They were disposing of the garbage bag his feathers had managed to fill.

Isaac wondered if going back to the state of autopilot he had been on for the last minute would be better than the feeling of increasing shame from watching those feathers he had so carefully taken care of, as he had been taught, end up in some garbage bin in the streets. Those were once part of his wings...

'Yeah, you said it, 'were'. You aren't growing those back anytime soon'.
Isaac frowned and suddenly felt a grip on his arm.

“Alright, time to go.”

Even though he followed Isabel without any complain, Isaac looked at the girl confused and then back at his house they were leaving behind but never stopping their rushed stroll in the street. “Where are we going?”

“To find answers.” She said.

Isaac looked at the path they followed, realizing they were walking towards her house. He stopped on his tracks, the heel of his shoes digging against the pavement which nearly made Isabel trip on her step. She looked over her shoulder ready to complain before Isaac began to say in a heated voice “You can't tell–!”

The girl snorted before he even got the sentence out. “Relax, as if I'd tell grandpa all this happened.” With a reassuring smile to the ginger, she gave a light tug on his wrist to make him continue his walk along with her. Isaac sighed relieved through his nose and allowed Isabel to keep her hold on his arm as they continued to follow the path.
“It'd leave us even more confused than we already are.”

“Hey, nerd. What'chu thinkin' about?”

The imminent fear that his crush was going to be too obvious sooner or later? How good Isaac looked in his clothes? Both?!

“Nothing in particular.” Max answered, making his gaze fall from the ceiling by letting his head hang loosely on the border of the bed he was laying on. He was starting to feel the beginning of a neck pain from the uncomfortable position he was in.
“Do you ever wake up and feel like you've been thinking about something for the entire day?” Seriously, this was getting ridiculous.

“Like the time Stephen was so sure of aliens he kept repeatin' us the same thing every time we saw an airplane?” Johnny said not even moving his sitting position on the floor or his eyes from his TV.

Max scrunched his nose and got back to lie in a comfortable position in the bed, staring at the ceiling and letting his neck rest once he started to feel dizzy after some minutes from having his gaze affixed to the screen.
Watching all the sharp turns the pixelated car made in the videogame Johnny was playing and being upside down didn’t mix well.

“Uh... No, somehow, it's worse.”

Johnny glanced over his shoulder and then turned back again to face the game he played. “This about the party I'm throwin'?”

The capped boy nearly denied his friend's question before thinking better about it. “You know what, yeah. You already planned everything?”

“Hell yeah I did! Ya better be ready 'cause ya gonna be hearin' about how awesome tomorrow's gonna be for the rest of your damn existence!”

“If people remember it, that is.”

“Buddy, no drop of alcohol will make 'em forget it.” The sound effects of the car going across the road filled the room for some minutes. “But since ya brought up the subject about the drinks–”

“I really didn't. I was referencing to any drugs in general you animals will bring but go on, I guess.”

“Stephen isn't sure he'll be able to bring 'em. That leaves me to ask RJ or Ollie.” He continued ignoring the brunet's comment while counting his friends with his fingers each time he said their names. “'nd if you call alcohol a drug again, I'll start callin' you grandma.”

Max scoffed but remained from saying anything.
A memory from long time ago passed his mind. An afternoon like any other, the bickering and teasing from when he debated with Isaac over if alcohol should be considered a drug or not kepping them from falling into the grasp of their boredoom. Not like anybody won since one is as stubborn as the other when they want to, but, it was quite a fun memory.

“And since, ya know, the one who owns a fucking corner store doesn't wanna bring the drinks–”

The smile Max didn't notice that was starting to show in his face instantly fell at his friends words.

“It would be taken away from my pay, you asshole. And no, it wouldn't help to "keep it a secret" like that one time.”

Happened once, never again. Even though his father didn't mind when Max confessed due to his own feeling of guiltiness –plus Isaac but the ginger was the last to find out since Max knew he would be the one to convince him to do so–... Maxwell would rather avoid feeling anxious for the rest of the week.

Johnny clicked his tongue but remained from pushing the subject. “Well, once the drinks problem is taken care of, I'll just need to know how to organise the house.”

A scoff came out of Max before he could help it. “You? Organise? Oh god, you are dying.”

The redhead propped one of his arms on the end of the bed so he could glance at Max. “Pal, I will be if I don't. Had to promise the house won't end up too broken.”

“Define "too" broken.”

“The TV, pictures... You know, that kinda stuff.”

Max would laugh but if he were in Johnny's shoes, he wouldn't want to dissapoint his father either. He didn't expect the redhead to care about that too, though.

“Well, try to hide them somewhere. But you know people like to rummage around the house.”

Johnny shrugged and waved his hand. “Nah, I know. I'll prolly just put 'em upstairs.”

“Upstairs?”

“Uh, yeah. You know up there's filled with my ma's plants and shit. Was plannin' on hanging this on the door too.” Johnny rumaged through one of his drawers, getting out a small sign that said 'DO NOT OPEN' in bolded white letters against a red background.

Max’s face dropped “You’re seriously going to close the rooftop?”

“I ain’t stupid,” Max was about to retort before Johnny continued, “if I close it, some punk may break it open. This is just a warning to attend to the consequences if they decide to ignore my rules.”

“Bold you to talk about the sucess of this party if you're already putting rules but,” Max commented before shrugging.
When he only got his words repeated back to him in a high-pitched mocking voice as a response he scowled. “You're closing the best place in the house.” He tried again.

“The best place will be down, where the music and booze will be. Look, I made a promise and I plan on keepin' it, I don’t wanna find people doin’ nasty shit up there.”

Max clicked his tongue and crossed his arms. His friend had a point but still, “...If, hypothetically, someone doesn’t plan on doing that?”

“If I don't know 'em I don't see why they should be there.”

“If they’re people you know and are friends with—?”

“Alright, here's the deal, bud. You wanna bring him up there? Fine, but one: nobody has to know you go up except me or the gang. Two: don't you fuckin' dare ta break anything. Three: I ain't held responsible if any of you fall from there drunk off your asses. And four: If I find any kind of fluids stuck to anythin–”

“Please, for the love of god, don't finish that sentence.” Max mumbled feeling his blood go up his face against his will since his friend had started talking.

“I'm doing it on purpose. Four: Your underwear stays were it's supposed to be, caprezze?”

Grey eyes narrowed as Max maintained his mouth shut, waiting for the red on his face to fade completely. When Johnny never showed any sign of trying to move his eyes from him, the brunet turned his head, clicking his tongue “The hell's wrong with you, and it's capisce.”

“I ain't bilingual.” Johnny said making Max roll his eyes. “'Nd also I ain't no cupid. Don’t expect advice from me.”

“I didn’t ask you shit, go back to playing your game already.”

“I’m trying to but you keep being all:” Johnny mockingly sighed repeatedly, mimicking Max's sighs.

The brunet went to sigh but it quickly turned into a low groan when he realised what he was doing.

“Yeah, like that.”

Max's only response was to raise his middle finger to Johnny.

“Pal, I gave you the rooftop. Ya better use it and confess already. Stop being a weakling.”

“Game. Now.”

“I’m just saying!”

“He's probably not coming anyway.” He didn't mean to say it so softly, damnit.
Max tried to turn the subject somewhere else when he saw Johnny about to talk again. “You got bored of losing so many times in the same race, didn't you?” He commented.

A big collision was heard when the car ran against a wall from taking a turn way too slow and soon enough a police car slid in beside the, now wrecked, one as big white letters announcing 'YOU'VE BEEN CAUGHT' appeared in the screen.

“...Yeah, let's do something more fun.”

“Like...?” Max asked as he sat on the bed while crossing his legs.

“Dunno.” The redhead got up from the floor, patting down any dust from the back of his jeans and stopping when he looked down to his front pockets and remembered the box of cigarretes he kept inside.
“Oh, right! Check this out! I found a box of these totally full! We gotta use ‘em.”

“You gotta be kidding me...”

”...I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Do you want to find out why your wings are falling or not?” Isaac's eyes immediately widened and Isabel unconsciously took a step back whe he shushed her.

“Don't say that so loud! What if someone hears?!”

Isabel exhaled while fighting back her need to roll her eyes and nodded. For being an issue that was treated like it would kill you as soon as it happens or something, with the feathers falling from his wings non-stop, Isaac seemed to have enough energy to even argue with her.

While whispering a long apology only to get the ginger to frown, she opened her house's door as slowly as she could. She stuck her head inside before nodding to the ginger to follow her inside. In silence, they approached Guerra's office and observed the big door in front of them.

“What now?”

Isabel put her index finger in front of her mouth and placed her ear against the wooden door, searching for any sign telling her that someone was inside. When she heard nothing, she dared to open slightly the door, just enough to see through the gap. Not a soul to be seen.

And that's when Isabel quickly opened the door, making her way into the room.

“Watch for me so nobody comes inside!” And then the door was closed and Isaac was left alone in the living room feeling the anxiety wash over him.

His eyes scanned everywhere. Up the stairs, the corridors next to the office, the sound of cars passing by, steps getting closer to him...

Oh no, oh no... Isabel had to get out. Now.

He nearly knocked the door to make the girl know but stopped himself in time. Every sound against the hard wood would echo through the whole silent house. It would only bring more attention...

With his mind running and his eyes scanning every corner of the house waiting for however was approaching to appear from one of them, Isaac let out a surprised yelp when the door behind him quickly opened, hitting against his back. Isabel got out and showed one corner of the cover of the book she was hiding under her shirt. Isaac sighed in relief before running upstairs with the girl following close behind towards her room

That was until Isaac bumped against someone walking down the stairs.

“You'll end up tripping if you run so fast when going up, you know?”

Yeah, that would have been too easy.

Isaac let out a nervous chuckle, stuttering with his words before Isabel came from behind him, which only made the palms of his hand sweat more since the one hidding the book inside her shirt shouldn't be the one who has the attention.

“Dr. Zarei! You came to visit?” Isabel said trying her best to make her crossed arms seem as natural as possible. Arms which were as close to the front of her chest as she could and the book under her shirt lying flatly against her.

The woman in front of them sighed before nodding. “Actually, your grandfather called me but yes, you could say that.” When both teens looked up at Zarei, confused by her words, she decided to explain herself. “Apparently, there aren't enough angels around here. I'll have to reunite with more and look around the vicinity when the next train to Mayview arrives.”

The woman sounded so drained her words seemed like they were being said out loud for a reminder to herself to gain the energy to do such tiring task. And considering the long way that awaited her from Isabel's house back to the train station where she lived next to, she must be exhausted.

The teenagers' eyebrows scrunched in scepticism at Zarei's words. “Not enough angels...?”

“Oh, ones capable of teaching those still in training I mean. I can help your grandfather with this kind of researches but, teaching isn't one of them. Not many of us want to go through that task, however... our superior can't do this... by himself.” Zarei's mouth quivered and she blinked when she realised the doubt in her own voice which made her last words sound like a question.

It didn't sound innacurate but... There was something that didn't fit. Like there was a missing piece in a puzzle.

Isabel opened her mouth to say something but cut short what she was going to say when Zarei groaned and massaged her eyes under her glasses with one hand and suddenly took a hold of the railing to not lose balance. Isabel inmediately placed her hand in the woman's arm to aid her when she saw the sudden movement. “Are you okay?”

“Just a headache, don't worry.” Zarei blinked and looked down at the two angels in front of her. She raised an eyebrow at how Isabel never left one of her arms from surrounding her own chest and looked up at the girl.

Isabel looked down at her arms and gulped, going back to her original position and showing a smile.

Zarei's eyes trailed to Isaac who remained still behind the girl but his inhale caught her attention, his blue eyes widened for a second but didn't break eye contact with the woman.

The two teenagers watched as Zarei hummed before walking slowly down the stairs. “I'll be heading out then. Take care.”
And with that she was out of the front door.

Isaac and Isabel shared a glance before both of them went back to their initial run to Isabel's bedroom, bolting up the stairs.

Opening the door, the girl entered first with the ginger behind her quickly closing the door.
Isabel took the book out of the inside of her shirt, shook it in her hand with a smile.

“Oh god, we stole the Eightfold.” The severity of the situation hit Isaac all at once. They stole Eightfold, the book Isabel's grandpa put above anything else, the book angel's should follow no matter the consequences. The book only the eyes of those in the highest of ranks could read!

“We didn't steal it! I'll put it back in place when we're done with this.”

“And Zarei totally noticed...”

“And if she did, it wasn't because of your incredible acting, of course.” Isabel said sarcastically. “You looked like you were gonna faint, dude.”

Isaac covered his face with both his hands. “We shouldn't be doing this. This is not okay...”

In a quick movement, Isabel put the book on her bed to grab her friend by his wrists, putting his hands away so Isaac would look at her. “And what's happening to your wings is?” Isaac's eyes widened when Isabel let out the question but the boy never retorted. “Look, we need to know why this is happening to you.”

Isaac sat down crestfallen beside her on the bed. He looked up when Isabel put a hand on his shoulder. “Besides, we're angels and we barely know the rules about our world? Where's the logic in that?”

Isaac sighed and nodded. “You read it first, though.” He said to which the girl bowed.

“I'll do the honours then.” She grabbed to book by both sides and inhaled deeply before glancing to Isaac. “Ready?” It was for him they were doing this after all.

“Do I have a choice?”

“Is walking away and living with fear for the rest of your life a valid option to you?

“No.”

“Then, no, sorry.” Isabel opened the book making Isaac flinch beside her. This had to be quick, like riping a band-aid from your skin.

'Sshhh' the first worn page goes
as it passes gently
by the girl's fingers' desire.
Yellow parchment must be the material,
though the words pictured danced around
as if they were ethereal.
Oh fallen one, you should've known.
A shame it is playing with fire
and not having a clue of who threw the match
but learning that the lit path is the one you must follow.

“Wow.” Isabel let out unconsciously once she started to read the words in the first page showing the title of the book followed by a series of names below of which one of them belonged to her grandfather's.

“What is it?” Asked Isaac, still too scared to even dare to look at what was written in the pages.

“The words move. How strange.”

“Move?”

“Yeah but not like, around the page. They're moving but staying in their place. Like floating.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow and turned sideways towards Isabel though he still maintained his raised hand beside his face, blocking him the vision from the book. “What?”

“Like– Why am I describing it to you?! Look at the dang book! This page is just the introduction!” Isabel reached for the boy's arm and pulled him towards her, ignoring his pouting and complains.

When Isabel lifted the page to look from the other side, she noticed it was quite a lengthy text for an introduction, and observing how small the words written were and how the book wasnt exactly a big size, she could imagine what awaited them.

“This book sure had a lot of owners. This isn't my grandpa's handwriting.” The pages were being turned rather quickly as Isabel comented “Ugh, we already know all of this. The first angel organisation, basic norms to teach, blah, blah, blah...”

'Schliff, schliff, schliff' The truth is getting nearer.
One scared and one curious.
Will the response be of satisfaction
to the questions of the duo?
Hope should not be on the table, children,
you must know,
for maybe a kind lie would've been better
than the bitter treat
that is today's announce.

“Rules! This must be it!”

Isaac inhaled sharply at Isabel's words and only dared to maintain his eyes in the girl's face to find the answers in her changes of expression as she read the text.

His friend's eyes scanned the page and Isaac's heart started to beat faster as Isabel's eyes widened with each word she read.

“What? What does it say?!” Isaac stood up quickly in a sudden boost of bravery, trying to take a better look at the book laying on his friend's hands.

You know when sometimes you try to ignore something, but deep inside, you know that it's still there? Hidden in the back of your head?

'Why must an angel make their contact with their human as short as they can?
As dreadful as the possibility is, a guardian angel can become like the ones they look after—'

Because there's something that doesn't feel right. You are taught that you shouldn't let strong feelings take over you, so you try your best to act as how you're supposed to be.

Maybe he should have let it stay hidden. If he had ignored it for so long, maybe it would disappear. That's what Isaac thought.

'—by falling in love with them.'

He knew. God, of course he knew. It would have been stupid not to actually notice when you feel attracted to someone. There's people that instantly catches your eyes, because of the way they express themselves... They make the entire room shine on their own just with just their laugh and personality.
Max was like that, and Isaac realised that even before the start of all this.

'The first change the fallen would be experiencing in this situation, would be, as it is deducted by the name; the fall of their wings.'

If they were so strict over not getting strong bonds with humans it had to be because of something. And Isaac ignored that.
If something were to happen to your wings, that was an horrible sign. No show of any care for that either, right? He could find a solution.
The dots were so close together but he didn't connect them because he didn't want to. He refused to think that it had to stop.
That these moments that brought him so much happiness had to stop.

'The progress the human has made since that moment will be remembered, but the memories of their angel being there will be erased, just like the memories of the fallen that relate them to anything of this world. That means relationships of any kind too.
Any memory attaching the fallen to our memories will be gone and the only proof of that person existing for us will be in this book.'

The next page showed a list. Dancing letters going from side to side as if mocking his fate, showing first and last names.
There were so many names but his mind didn't register any of them. He just kept rereading the last sentence once, twice...
Understanding exactly what it said but wishing he didn't.

One of Isabel's trembling fingers reached over to the next page where the list kept up writting itself. New names appeared by the second, making the list longer and longer, writing pages that were once blank as the two angels watched them appear, one by one they fell.
Isaac's eyes followed the girl's fingers movement that stopped at a name that, considering it was up on one of the most recent page, it had been there for some time. The finger caressed the spot where the name laid.

'Isaac O'Connor'

Isabel closed the book in her hands, with a gentleness too out of character from her as she turned to the boy but not knowing how to meet his eyes. “Isaac–”

“I'm okay.” Isabel finally raised her saddened expression at Isaac. “Don't worry. I just–”

He didn't like pity. Everything was alright. He was fine. But the moment Isabel's arms wrapped around him by his shoulders, the only thing he could do was break down crying and do his best to hide his face in the crook of Isabel's neck as he clawed the back of his friend's shirt for any support he could take as he felt himself crumbling with each painful sob.

The payment you were asked for
wasn't the one you were hoping.
But what were you expecting, naive one?
For self-blinding to be a fitting solution
to crossing lines you were supposed to keep in sight?
The book only says what was on stone laid,
and a shame it is really,
but soft liquid falling from blind eyes
wont be enough to erase what destiny writes.

And you should forgive the bold assumption,
but tell me, broken bird,
changing your feelings was never an option
since the start of all this, wasn't it?