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Sera's first charge died.
They were a clumsy thing, always moving too fast, never looking as carefully as they should. It was only a matter of time before it happened. If they hadn't fallen there, they would have fallen the week after. And if they didn't fall there, either, then they would die anyway, because dying is what mortals do.
The other angels were horrified. They wanted to believe that it had been an honest mistake, and so they never asked her to explain herself. They assigned her a new training course, and then, after that, a new human.
That one died too. And the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and all the ones they assigned after that.
They thought there was something wrong with her. Maybe there was, but Sera didn't think so. All a guardian angel is good for is delaying the inevitable. It was a game to distract you from the fact that you will live much, much, longer than the mortals, but you are just as small and meaningless as they are. Sera already knew this, so there was no use in distraction.
They sent her to KADE, a school for monsters and deviants. She was the only angel to have ever been enrolled. She didn't care. She was given class after class on building relationships with humans, and she didn't care. She repeated those classes for years, failing them over and over, and she didn't care.
One day, the school would burn down or get demolished, and then she would still be trapped on Earth, surrounded by things she didn't care about in a universe that didn't care about her. And she probably wouldn't care about that either.
Days blurred into weeks blurred into years. Which meant nothing to her, because she was going to live forever, and nothing means anything in the face of infinity. She would wake up, go to class, then go back to her dorm and go to sleep.
Wake up, class, sleep. Sometimes she skipped, but most of the time she didn't, because wandering the halls alone was more boring than just attending the lectures.
Wake up, class, sleep. Professor Lovecraft kept urging her to join clubs, but there was no use in a distraction, so Sera never bothered.
Wake up, class– there's a new student in Rehabilitation. He's a revenant and he is teleported, yelling, into the seat next to her. Why anyone would claim to be human is beyond her, but he says he's completely serious. He invites her to escape the school with him, gets caught, and then tries to escape again.
Rev Vennett is the most interesting person Sera has ever met. She observed his first few weeks, waiting for him to fall into the same boring patterns that everyone falls into, but even his routines stood out: he hated the school, but went to class anyway because he hated not being a top student more; he always sat at the same lunch table even though he says he doesn't want Mark next to him; he could never let Wendy have the last word, even when he's pretending to be above her.
He cared so much. Sera couldn't look away. It'd be a waste if Rev ever figured out how to kill himself off permanently; she still hadn't figured him out yet. Mark says that she and Rev are friends, so she thinks that maybe it would be okay if she tried to guard him, too, and she assigns herself a charge for the first time in her life.
Rev was a fire, and trapped in the void, Sera ended up just close enough to burn her skin and feel something within her flicker in response.
Existing was a bit of a learning curve. It turned out, now that she was paying attention, people did things that pissed her off a lot. Especially Rev.
Given that he was the person who taught her to care about the things that happen to her, Sera was not happy to realize that he didn't care about himself at all. For an immortal revenant, he had a way of getting dangerously close to things that could destroy him for good, which was very frustrating for Sera, who was struggling enough with just how much she cared about him.
They fought a lot, which was new, and interesting. In a surprising turn of events, they also ended up kissing a lot, which was also new, and interesting.
Lots of interesting things happen these days. She accidentally started passing Rehabilitation, which she's never done in her entire time at KADE. It makes sense– she thinks she's been improving at interacting with other living things. For instance:
Raven is getting impressively far in her attempt to fall out of a closed fourth story window. Sera's been watching her progress for the past ten minutes of her free period. For a cat literally made of skin and bones, it's a testament to the sheer power of her death drive that the window is slowly becoming less closed the longer Raven messes with the ledge.
Sera could not care less if this cat lives or dies, but if she falls out of this window, she'll revive herself outside and wander off-campus and get eaten or something. Which Sera doesn't care about either, but Rev's parents do, and Rev will care if they come complaining at him for losing the cat. And so Sera picks up Raven and holds her away from the windowsill, because she is a good friend and basically saving his life.
The cat looks at her and she looks back. She really is an ugly cat. Sera never understood pets, and she definitely doesn't get how Raven inspires enough devotion to have Mark constantly scrambling to save her— but then again, Sera does do the same thing for Raven's equally suicidal owner, so maybe she's not any more rational.
Speaking of, Mark usually keeps a close eye on Raven. Sera thinks about looking for him, but she is suddenly struck by that distinct feeling she gets when Rev is doing something unhealthy or unethical. She's hoping for the latter, which is usually much more fun to watch.
When she teleports, she lands outside the alchemy classroom and in front of Bella Donna, who jumps when she looks up from her phone and sees Sera in front of her.
“Sera! I was just about to call you!” Bella falters, “Er- do you actually have a phone? I couldn't find your contact info anywhere.”
This isn't interesting at all. “What happened.”
“Ah, there was an incident. Rev got hit with another emotion potion–” Oh god, “–and it'll wear off in a few hours, but someone should probably watch him until then and I know you guys are, uh, involved, so.”
Emotion potions again. Not even a little fun. She can feel her stress levels rising already. Ugh. Sera drops Raven into Bella's arms unceremoniously and walks into the alchemy room.
Rev is sitting on the floor by a desk, staring listlessly off into space. His brows are furrowed, but they always are when he's not doing anything else. He's not giving her any clues as to what the potion could be, so she takes this second in the calm before the storm to appreciate the fact that he is, at least, much cuter than the cat. A way worse personality though, so she and Mark are even.
She steps forward, and Rev turns his head. When he sees her, his face changes completely; the tension melts away, and she watches as his eyes soften. He looks completely unguarded, like whatever this potion was swept his bitterness and anger away.
“Sera.” Rev sounds relieved, and it sends a spark of satisfaction through her to know her guardianship is appreciated.
Sera is still deciding if she should be worried about the potion's effects when Rev stands up, walks over, and envelopes her in a hug.
Sera blinks. She's been hugged before– Mark's a big hugger and she doesn't care enough to dodge. Rev is not a big hugger, and even though they've obviously been close before, it's never been like this. His arms are wrapped patiently around her back, and she can feel his freezing skin where his face is pressed against her hair. What kind of potion is this?
“Bella said you were splashed with an emotion potion.”
“Yeah, it'll wear off eventually.” He wraps his arms tighter around her. It's nice.
Sera reaches to hold his face in her hands and pull him down to eye level. He leans into the touch, which isn't unusual, but his eyes are still so soft and they're flitting between her eyes and her mouth like he can't decide which is more important. “A love potion?”
Rev rolls his eyes. “Wendy's attempt at a prank. I'm surprised that idiot managed to put it together properly. I'm glad you're here.”
He says the last part so fondly that it catches Sera off guard. It's so nice, and so not-Rev, and she can't figure out how to feel about it.
“What, am I embarrassing you?” Rev smirks, pressing in closer. The statement is so ridiculous coming from him that it must be a joke, so Sera laughs accordingly.
He grins, “You have a terrible laugh.” But he kisses her right after, so it can't be that bad.
This potion is making Rev sweet. Normal Rev is easy to navigate. She knows all of those feelings well enough by now: the thrill of seeing something she hasn't seen yet, the worry that he's going to find a way to permanently mess himself up, the amusement of watching his huge emotional reactions to small things, like getting a bad grade on a test, or asking her to kiss him.
She doesn't know what to do with this prickling, fluttering feeling that grows in her when he looks at her with those soft eyes or compliments her in that affectionate voice. He'll be back to normal soon. Hopefully she won't have to deal with it much longer.
The bell screams, and Sera idles, waiting to follow Rev wherever he marches off to next. Rev seems perfectly happy to just stand there with his head on her shoulder, though. People are going to start entering the classroom soon, so she decides to teleport them up to a fifth floor balcony.
“Don't jump.” He would be fine, but it would be annoying to go down after him and wait for his body to piece itself back together.
“I won't! I am perfectly fine right here,” Rev grabs her hand to prove his point. “Besides, I have a beautiful guardian angel distracting me from the ledge.”
“That has never stopped you before.” Sera says flatly.
“Sure it has!” He lies.
He tugs her hand to urge her to sit, so she does. She can't be bothered to actually sit up so she lays back, and Rev follows suit, tucking himself next to her.
Clouds swam hypnotically in the blue sky above them. Sera used to look at the sky a lot, but only at night. She thought that the daytime sky wasn't worth looking at, just an illusion between her and freedom.
Rev hums. “What are you thinking about?”
“How do you…care so much about everything?” She's asked him before, but she enjoys watching him come up with an answer.
“How do you not?” He scoffs. “It's my life, I should have a say.”
“I'm going to survive longer than the planet.”
He flinches against her. “Wasn't expecting that.”
There's a pressure building in Sera's chest. There are words she needs to get out, but she can't figure out how to say them. “Nothing…that has ever happened to me will matter in my lifetime. Nothing that will happen will matter to the universe.”
She can't see past the blue. Rev says something, but she doesn't hear it. She's feeling something she doesn't understand and she's trapped beneath the sky, in this body, on this stupid looping planet—
She is inside, breathing heavily. She doesn't even have lungs. Fuck.
“Sorry.”
Rev furrows his brows again, standing out on the balcony, but his eyes are still soft, and he's slowly approaching her, and she doesn't know what any of those things mean, so she changes the subject back to things she understands.
“We're missing Rehabilitation,” Sera says. She knew this before she brought them here, but it's true nonetheless.
“All part of my plan to make you fail again,” Rev snarks. “Can't have you leaving me in this shithole alone.”
Sera is confused. “I have divine sight. I can guard you no matter where I am.”
Rev reaches out to grab her hand, and she lets him twine their fingers together. “It's not the same. I wanna be near you.”
There's that prickling feeling again. Sera can't decide if she hates it or enjoys it. “Can you please be normal.”
“Trust me, I'm going to want to jump off this roof the second this potion wears off,” Rev grimaces. “But that doesn't mean it’s not– not true.”
She can feel his fingerprints resting against her blank, immortal hand. She can hear his blue blood sluggishly pumping through his veins, and she can see his undead aura pulsing strangely under the effects of the potion.
She knows he is ostensibly as immortal as her, but she has seen a lot since her creation, and she is suddenly, overwhelmingly terrified of outliving Rev the same way she will outlive everything else on the planet.
“Don't die.” Is what she ends up commanding, eyes fixed onto Rev's.
He snorts. “Kinda my thing, angel.”
He isn't taking this seriously. Sera is so scared. “Don't. Die.”
This time, he seems to get the message. His face does something that Sera can't decipher, and he opens and closes his mouth a few times before he finally responds: “I can't– I can't talk about this while I'm– I'm still like this. I can't.”
No one has ever been more important than Rev. Sera has never learned how to keep anything, and she doesn't know how to keep him safe or keep him from being miserable or keep him from burning down his own life. Two-hundred years of life and this past year she's felt like a newborn, opening her eyes to the whole world for the first time.
But, she thinks, looking at Rev's dilated pupils, swallowing up his grey eyes. But, one of the many things she's learned from meeting Rev is how to try.