Chapter Text
Love is unexpected.
It comes when the heart expects the least, to the most unexpected person, at the most unexpected time. You may tell yourself, ‘this love may be wrong because it happens too fast’. It may be wrong because… it was like a dream come true. Just like the fairy tales tell you; love doesn't need preparations.
And you guess for sure-- that's not going to happen in reality.
Or so you think.
Then, it does happen in reality, but your heart wavered, doubtful. You need more time, you’re not ready.
But.
Listen to your heart, it will never go wrong, as the heart knows its home.
Believe in your instincts, they give you the best advice. They bring you to the best people.
True love need not to be found—yet, it will come to you in the time of need.
Have you heard?
Soulmates are souls that made a promise to meet each other in the next life. That promise was said to be pure and divine, as there was no darkness tainting their hearts. That power brings them together in this world, and never would it be broken, no matter if it is separated by distance, age or worlds .
“I have given the quest for love. Because hopefully love will find me one day. Totally unexpected, astonishing and breathtaking.”
-NMC-
There was an unfamiliar, soft lavender scent.
Unfamiliar cold, hard floor.
Brows twitched as the cold temperature of the floor finally reached his face, disturbing the sleep he had for a few days.
An alarm clock rang.
It reminded him of home, but he’s no longer on earth, no longer home.
The distinct sound of an alarm was loud, continuous and distressing; uncertainty surfaced from the midst of unsettling sound that hits his ears.
It was usually from the earth but well, he's not on earth now
Or is he?
“EARTH!?” his heart screamed.
The sunlight that slipped through the windowpanes enters into vision, eyes squinted as soon as his eyelids were open.
"Oh. My. God."
He couldn't believe his eyes. The coldness of the tile seeping up to his skin seemed unreal. As he opened his eyes he was greeted with a strange, new environment—nothing like the stark whiteness of his normal workplace where the only decoration was his well of wishes. Blinking the room came into further focus to discover he was in a wide apartment, and now he realized there was very little space to move due to the scattered clothes and undisposed trash in the living room. His skin crawled, fingers itching to clear away the clutter, his mind screaming in discomfort at how messy this condo was.
Holy crap, what kind of person lives like this? A hoarder? That’s a thing right, yeah, but no…those people usually collect things they’re attached to…and unless this person finds comfort in keeping unwashed dishes in the sink for days, beer dripping on the floor unwiped, then that’s definitely not the situation here.
Thankfully, he landed in front of the front door; which was the only place that was completely empty from any of the scattered clothes.
He wanted to pick up one of the clothes, but judging by the smell of sweat that overwhelms the whole condominium, he cancelled the thought.
Nope, nope. Not going to stain his angelic hands… after all what's the point of being an angel if you have to do dirty work.
"Okay, now. Where's the alarm?" he uttered, half sighing.
There was something in his heart that made him feel like he couldn’t stay still. His feet itches to move—seemingly that he was in a state of panic. The thought why he was here, the thought that he’ll meet a human unprepared were making him… nervous.
The sensation of the hard floor on his feet were giving him clues of what would happen; and he will never be prepared, when he couldn't even remember why was he here in the first place.
He sighed again.
An angel like him shouldn’t feel emotions, it’ll affect his work as a wish-granter. That’s what he thought.
The unsettling feeling in his chest was disturbing and he pushed down the desire to stab until it stops.
Though, the pain receptors imbedded in his body wouldn’t allow him to harm himself, and he had no choice but to deal with it.
He needed to discover why he was here, but first things first. If he hoped to retain even a small amount of his hearing or, more importantly, his sanity then that annoying alarm clock that disturbed his slumber earlier needed to stop ringing!
Out of three doors in the apartment, only one of them was opened-- and the room beyond it was where the noise was coming from. Tip-toeing to avoid making any noise (and from stepping any of the clothes which he doubted its cleanliness) he slowly made his way to the only ajar door.
A raven-haired man, wrapped by the warmth of the white blanket on the queen bed, was sleeping soundly despite the ear-deafening alarm beside him. The man's sleeping form was facing toward the window across the room, preventing him from seeing his face.
So, he kept tip-toeing finally reaching the bedside table where he found that the completely annoying alarm he'd been hearing was produced by the phone laying on the surface. Just when he was about to reach out, hands were just a few inches away from the buzzing modern phone …
"Aaaaah!!!"
The man that he thought was in deep slumber, suddenly shrieked loudly, causing the trembling angel to let out the highest pitch of scream along.
Exasperated, the angel threw his hands up, “what the frick ?! Can you shut up?! You’re scaring me too!”
The man wanted to say something regarding the situation, but due to shock, he didn’t utter a single word. Only his chest continued to go up and down, surprised.
“You…”
The half-awakened man tried to utter some words but his attempt was met with the penetrating thick smell of alcohol that finally kicked in once the man opened his mouth and the clean freak angel… did not appreciate it.
“Uff…” swiftly, his hands shifted from his hips to his nose, pinching it in order to prevent any horrific smell penetrating his nose any longer. “… can you shut up for a moment? Your mouth stinks.”
Gosh, the combination of smell of morning saliva and alcohol is the worst.
He was known as an angel of grace and beauty back in the heaven realm -- or more precisely, a clean freak -- and he always avoid being around humans that reeks of alcohol. Nope. Usually he will swap his job with somebody else, avoiding filthiness at all costs.
Ah, and one more mistake that he felt like slapping himself in the face.
How the fuck did he forgot to check whether the man was sleeping or not before approaching the alarm? Now he had to deal with a human freaking out because of a sudden presence of a stranger in his room...not that he'd blame him, but still he wasn't in the mood to deal with this nonsense.
"A- are you a burglar?"
The caramel-haired angel was stunned by the question, before burst out laughing. The truth was, it was commonly known that humans will spout out weird and unusual things when they can't think straight--so the angel assumed the question probably came from the man's half-conscious mind.
Usually, unprepared situations like this would make him panic, but because of this human’s stupid question, he was able to finally get a grip on himself.
“You’re a funny one,” he shook his head as he let out a small chuckle.
"This is my first time seeing someone asking a person that might be a burglar if he is a burglar," he continued with his giggle. "Your stupidity amazes me."
"Shut up! I'm going to report you to the police!"
"Oh, half naked? Bold move. They might think you're the burglar instead, his laughter echoing even louder in the apartment.
The human groggily stood up from the bed and looked down at himself, a slightly bloated stomach and a pair of grey baggy pants in view.
The angel caught a glimpse of the man’s ears, red with embarrassment, and he was sure that this man might be having withdrawal symptoms from alcohol.
"You're coming with me."
The human reached over to grab his grey sports hoodie, dragging it on as he approached the angel who had not moved, "You're coming with me."
When he reached to take the caramel-haired angel's hand, it was as if he was not even real, like he was just a projected picture. His eyes widened as his hand moved through his form when he tried in vain to reach for him again.
Or more precisely, it was as if, he was just a picture projected from a projector. His eyes widened by the view, tried to reach him again but in vain.
Nothing. Like touching thin air.
The angel stared up at the man, his eyes wide as well, his expression surprised, “Eh?!”
"A-a g-ghost?!"
Both had their heart beats fast, and the white-clothed angel could see his face starting to darkened in fear.
It’s weird, angels should be touchable by humans if they are visible to them in the naked eye. Why was he untouchable?
He bit his lips, deep in thought while eyeing the raven-haired man in front of him.
The human’s eyes travelled around the room, searching for something; to expel this said 'ghost' from his view. His intentions were clear, eyes darting back to the angel when he spoke up,
"Just drop it. It won't affect me."
"Drop what?"
"Your idea in searching for the cross."
The way the man gulped and the look in his eyes made the angel laugh even harder. His expression looked as if he was going to be doomed very soon, and he can't help but feel like teasing this man a little bit more.
"Can you calm down… I'm not a ghost."
"Then, what exactly are you if I can't touch you..?"
"An invisible burglar." the angel replied while curving a joking smirk.
The taller one replied with an annoyed, serious look, fed up with his non-stop teasing.
"Stop it, will you? I'm serious!"
Sighing, the angel sat on the messy bed, his eyes drawn to the window where he studied the blue sky, smirking as he patted the empty space beside him for the man to join him, "If you want to know, sit here. It's going to be a long storytime."
"Oh, no. I'm not going to sit there unless you tell me what are you."
"Well, if that's what you want," he gave the uneasy man a smirk, hands folded, "Try guessing."
"A ghost?"
"I've told you, I'm not."
"Satan?"
"Uff, do I look like one? But Satan wouldn't come unless you summon him with that star-shaped thingy and some blood."
"is that even true though?"
"Why not give it a try?"
"No, thank you. Having you is scary enough as it is."
The man drowned in his own thoughts again, brows twitching, raising his thumb to his chin as he considered what kind of being this might be. His withdrawal symptoms made his brain a little bit foggy, everything seems not making any sense.
"... uh. A grim reaper?"
"If I am, you should be dead by now."
He retreated back in his thoughts again.
What is it though?
He had this one particular answer, but he purposely kept the answer for the last because he thought it wouldn't be it.
"... an angel?"
"Ting, ting!! Correct!"
"... What? Are you for real?"
“Why the fuck would I lie?”
“Oh wow. A cursing angel.”
“Not all angels are as goody two shoes in those children storybooks that you read. Sorry to disappoint you.”
Despite his attention to the sunrise outside , he could hear the steps towards him. But he stopped halfway. The human still had his doubts.
“How can I know that you are one, and you’re not lying to me?”
The angel turned his attention on the figure beside him, still a few feet away. His stare into his eyes were full of curiosity and doubts, fascination but also fear at the same time and he couldn’t help but take this man’s question seriously.
“Okay, first thing. Don’t freak out when I show you,”
A nod.
“Second thing, I can’t make any wish come true because I’m on earth. Got it?”
“Then… if you’re in… heaven, you could?”
“Not heaven, really. That place is only for souls from earth, and angels do their work at separate places, like a garden outside the heaven and etc. We're not supposed to be interfering their peaceful time there.”
“Oh…"
"You have more questions?"
The taller one shook his head in silence, anticipating the proof that he promised.
"Alright. Here goes." The angel nodded.
It was slow, unnoticeable at first glance. But as time passes, and the sunrise was getting higher up in the sky, he could finally decipher the image in front of his eyes; wings.
White, feathery wings.
Too beautiful to be true, yet the presence of a beautiful silhouette in front of him proves that it was.
"Wow."
Mouth agape in amazement as he took steps towards the angel. Unaware-- as if there was a force drawing him in-- he tried reaching out to the wings, to know how it feels in his hands, to know how soft the wing's feathers of an angel would be, but again-- it was like touching thin air; nothing.
By then, he finally snapped out to reality and realize that he couldn't even touch the angel at the first place, and now reaching out to them as if he never knew about that fact? Made him feel like wanting to jump out of the window out of shame.
The thin line on his face turned into a frown as soon as his intentions were not met.
"You alright there, bud? Finally snapping out from your fantasy?"
The angel asked jokingly, chuckled as the raven-haired man retracted his hand, cheeks red.
"Nah, don't worry about it. Humans does that everytime." he reassured. Trying to calm down the redness on the human's cheeks.
I saw this scene every single time whenever I reveal myself to a human but he is just too cute. Yup, too cute. He thought.
"... though it's kinda weird why you couldn't touch me. Because in most cases, if the angels are visible on the human's naked eye, they can be touched as well, but I don't know why you still can't."
"Wait, I'm supposed to be able to touch you?" asked the latter, as he slowly place himself beside the angel that was retracting his wings.
"Yeah. That's what supposed to happen. But right now, I can't even seem to remember how I am here and for what purpose I'm being sent here-- to a human. Usually, angels would be sent to humans only when it is necessary for the angels to meet them."
"Like?"
"If their lives were in danger, as an example, we would need to help them to get out of the danger. That's why we were given temporary ability to touch humans when we are visible to them."
"Can they recognize that the ones they met were angels?"
"Nope, because we look like a normal human when we are visible to them. We don't stretch our wings out unless we need to use it."
By a sudden thought, the round-eyed angel turned his attention from the white wall to the human beside him; gazing into his eyes as he continued, asking. "Did you wish something… Uh...--"
"Yuto. Nakajima Yuto."
"... Yuto. Did you wish something? Maybe that's the reason why I'm here?"
"Hmm…" The taller one folded his arms. "I don't think so. If I did, you would come here since a long, long time ago."
"Did you wish something back then?"
"Yeah." His eyes were no longer staring back to the angel. As if he tried to avoid something. Something very deep.
"But that's not important anymore. Not that I need it now anyway." Yuto curved a painful smile.
There was silence between them for a short moment, the shorter one was unable to mouth any words. He never have to deal in this kind of situation before; humans avoiding to tell their own wish. Guess he was stuck in the heaven realm for too long that his communication skills were getting rusty.
"So, how long you'll be here?"
A break of silence, a change of topic, but the angel let it slide. Not that it was necessary to know his secret, for now.
"Not sure either. Unless I know why I'm here, I can guess for how long."
"So you'll be stuck here until you finally remember?"
"Maybe?"
Yuto relaxes his back on the bed as a sigh escaped his lips, both arms folded under his head, serving as a pillow.
"Looks like I have to babysit an angel from now on."
"Excuse me, sir. I'm the one babysitting you. I don't need to sleep, eat or bath like you do. So shut up."
"Okay, okay. Geez, calm down. I'm just joking." Yuto lets out a small chuckle as he continued. "Since we're going to live together from now on, I should know your name. Calling you, 'you' all the time would be awkward."
"What's wrong with that? 'You' sounds fine to me."
"But-"
"Nah, just kidding. Just call me Yamada."
"Oh wow. That's a... pretty generic name."
"I know."