Work Text:
there is an angel in your mortal enemy’s basement. and it is an angel in its many-eyed, haloed glory, where you were expecting your enemy’s treasure, your enemy’s brother. so you are immediately sceptical and you frown and you keep your weapons extended. but it has green, green eyes and white, white wings and it is too weak to fly out of here. so you lower your guns and undo its chains with your war-torn hands and you scoop its light, light body into your arms and you adjust its limbs so as to not drag on the floor. you replace its frail, frail legs with your own strong ones and take it away, away, away from the hands that have taken, are taking, will take from you and your comrades and the pure, pure thing in your arms.
and when you learn how much he has taken and how long he will chase you for the creature you have freed with shaking fingers, and it says it hates your enemy for everything he has done and everything he will do. and you think those are strong, strong words for the shining being with its emerald, emerald tears and its soft, soft palms, but then it meets your gazes and cups your faces and when he comes like you knew he would and takes too much, too soon, and then you are running, but it is too little, too late, and its mouth curves into a gentle, gentle smile, and it thanks you in that pretty, pretty voice, and it glows that warm, warm light.
and then you understand, there and then, with your rough, rough hands cradling the thing that you saved, that you doomed to its fate by opening that door, that you took in and held and protected, that it was an angel you saw that day, sitting in your mortal enemy’s basement, and it is an angel you cry for now, life dripping through your strong, frantic hands, and it is an angel that loves you, for everything that you’ve done and everything you will do.
(later, when the glow has faded into nothing and your lungs are exhausted from grieving and your nails are dirtied from digging, and you are finally, finally far away enough that you can rest, you’ll meet gazes and you’ll see and you’ll know, that it was an angel you found and freed and held, and it is an angel you’ll protect and live and love by.
and when you have completed your legs of the journey and completed your parts in the fight and completed your roles in your life, it will be an angel that cups your faces and smiles and says, in its lovely, lovely voice, “i missed you.”)