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What do angels look like?
The question took Duo aback as he read Sousuke’s fingers. “What do you mean?” he asked, curious, his words mirrored as he signed back from his seat on the couch.
What do they look like? Humans with wings? The six-year-old flapped his arms as emphasis for good measure, a playful smile on his lips. That’s what Sister Anne says, but Ms. Maddi says they’re big wheels with eyes , referring to the nun and the graduate student that assisted her with the Sunday School classes.
Duo chuckled. Now he understood.
Christmas was always a big deal for those who celebrated, even here in the colonies, and the holiday had perhaps only gained new notoriety following the Eve Wars. Their family—scattered though they were across colonies and Earth—celebrated for other reasons, but Heero and Duo had long ago agreed that instilling a little belief in a Higher Power wasn’t inherently a bad thing for their son. Attending Mass had become a bonding experience of sorts between Duo and Sousuke, and Duo loved the conversations that came of it. Admittedly, L2’s brand of religion crossed so many cultural paths in daily life that it was all but its own special kind of spirituality. The cluster’s Catholics were no different in this regard, so Duo and Heero had made sure Sousuke’s foray into Sunday School and Sacraments was matched with secular moorings in philosophy and ethics.
This year’s Christmas celebrations were special, however: a couple weeks ago, Sousuke and his friends had been cast as ‘Christmas angels’ in the St. Jude Church’s nativity play. The boy had been giddy with the news, sobering only once they had returned home.
Will you come too? Sousuke had asked Heero, his fingers faltering only slightly as he signed at his father.
Heero had tossed his writing aside and swept the little boy up in his arms. “You’re in a play. Of course I’m going to come,” he assured, planting a kiss to the boy’s cheek.
Duo shook his head, returning to the present and coming back to the question at hand. “No one’s really sure,” he answered. “They’re described differently by different books, by different people. Maybe they look like us, maybe they don’t. Maybe they look like a bunch of things all at the same time.”
Sousuke made a face. Clearly this answer was less than helpful. Duo chuckled again and pulled out his mobile. “Let’s see if we can find some pictures…” which prompted Sousuke to bound over and climb into his lap.
They searched through paintings, sketches, and stills from films, imagery and imaginings from medieval to present times. Sousuke commented on the ones he liked—which Duo was amused to find were usually the ones with multiple heads—but then recoiled a bit at one that looked particularly alarming compared to the others. Duo rubbed his back. “Remember how they say ‘Be not afraid?’ Maybe that’s why.”
Sousuke hummed a moment as he considered this. But they’re the good guys?
“Yes, they’re the good guys. They may look scary, or surprising, or different. But they’re not bad.” Sousuke nodded at this and tucked himself into Duo’s side as they continued their review.
At last, Heero appeared above them from over the back of the couch. From the corner of his eye, Duo spotted him tucking his ink-stained hands under his arms as he leaned over. To Sousuke, Duo instructed, “Alright. Dinnertime. Go get washed up.” Sousuke signed a quick acknowledgement to them both before sliding from the couch and skipping in the opposite direction, disappearing from sight.
Alone, Heero looked at Duo. “If he has nightmares tonight, you’ll know why.”
Duo snorted and dropped his phone to the couch cushions beside him. “He won’t. He’s our son, after all. It’s going to take more than some whirly-gigs with googly eyes to scare him.”
Heero smirked, withdrawing.
Sousuke did not have nightmares, that night or any subsequent night. But he also stopped mentioning the pageant. Whenever Duo or Heero brought it up, Sousuke only pressed his lips into a thin line as if that would help keep him from telling them about it. Good practice, was all he would tell them, though on one occasion they were able to extract, Ms. Maddi is helping us with our costumes. Duo and Heero had exchanged a look at the last—Maddi was an active member of the colony’s theater scene. If anything, it only piqued their curiosity…and yet, Sousuke kept mum.
You two sit here , Sousuke instructed as the three of them entered the church for the Christmas program, pointing to one of the pews on the left in the front.
“You know where you’re going?” Duo asked him as they made their way to the desired spot, eyes scanning the congregation and finding familiar faces throughout, fellow parents chief among them.
Sousuke nodded emphatically, practically bouncing out of his shoes with excitement. He supervised them to ensure they sat where he had instructed, and then said only, I’ll be in the front —as if they would miss him alongside the three other angels—before bolting down the aisle and disappearing down a side corridor.
Duo shook his head and sighed. Beside him, Heero laughed under his breath as he hooked their arms together. “He’s excited. Decorum be damned.”
They slipped into a comfortable silence, taking in the sanctuary before them as the hubbub of holiday cheer reverberated around them. Stained glass windows and religious ornament glistened in candlelight and a brilliant starburst hung over the altar as if to bless everyone below. Duo smiled to himself and thought of a far smaller Christmas with fondness, time healing old wounds as the years marched ever onward.
He turned to comment on it to Heero and found his husband taking in the scene before them and around them with rapt attention. As if he could paint the vision, the feeling of it all in his mind and retrieve it again on demand. Duo knew that gaze and observed, “You have writing eyes, I see.”
Heero ducked his head, cheeks dusting a faint pink. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Duo reassured and leaned in to plant a chaste kiss on Heero's temple. A reassurance. Turning his attention back to the altar, he said, “It’s beautiful, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Heero agreed. “I can’t remember when I was last here. Maybe a couple years.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Duo said, his voice soft as he turned to catch his husband’s gaze again.
Heero met his eyes, and with a tender warmth replied, “Me too,” as the first notes of the organ chimed to life.
The play carried the congregation through the story of a little boy’s miraculous birth, scenes punctuated by the enthusiastic—if slightly off-key—voices of children singing songs that rejoiced in the occasion.
As the last notes of the latest choral faded, an angel appeared at the corner of the dias from behind a makeshift curtain. Sousuke held his head high with righteous confidence, dressed in layers of flowing white and iridescent fabric. A glittering halo framing his head and a pair of feathered wings sprouted from his shoulders. But as he stepped forward towards the congregation, six more wings appeared from behind him at different angles. Startled gasps rippled through the audience as the angels—no angel , Duo realized as he saw Sousuke’s friends move behind him in practiced precision—spoke to the congregation and the shepherds assembled down stage. The voices overlapped and rebounded across the arched ceiling, matching the signs from Sousuke delivered with utmost gravity.
Hark!
“Hark!”
“Hark!”
“Hey, pay attention!”
Startled laughter met the call, which only grew when parents matched voices to their kids. Parents applauded as the angel flapped its wings in gratitude.
Be not afraid—
“Be not afraid!”
“Fear not!”
“Don’t be scared!”
—I bring you good news of great joy for all people.
“ — I bring you good news of great joy for all people.”
“I bring good tidings!”
“For everyone!”
It was only then, when three other children peaked out from behind Sousuke that they all realized the pièce de résistance: the angel had four heads—an ox, a lion, an eagle, and a man.
Heero murmured, “Amazing.”
Duo had to agree, watching Sousuke sign his lines with a wide smile. “It’s perfect.”