Modern Angel Drabble

“Sure, Lisa. Sure.” Mariana rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “What is up with you, anyway? You’ve been gushing about your so-called angel boyfriend for a few months now. I know he’s your first and everything, but seriously—fighting demons by moonlight? Doesn’t that sound a little Sailor Moon-y?”

Normally, her words would have irritated me by now, but I felt too happy today to care. Today was the day before our first-year anniversary, and I couldn’t wait to show him my present. He’d also told me that he wanted to meet my friends again, this time as he truly was. The nerves I should have been feeling at such a prospect were drowned out by my excitement to meet him again. How would my friends react to finding out that my words had actually been truth? Bliss made me uncaring. Blithely, I replied, “I know, but that’s probably what he’s doing right now—cutting through Hellspawn left and right, with nothing more on his mind than the benefit of the world…”

“You have a really overactive imagination; you know that, right?”

Suddenly, a wall of white filled my vision. A loud rustling of feathers, and I suddenly found myself blinking at my friends from eight feet away. In front of me stood Gabriel, with a grin on his face incongruous with the enormous bloodstain I saw on the side of his battered shirt. I was fairly certain that that wasn’t his blood there, but worry rose in my throat all the same. That grin was infectious, though, and instead of asking after his health, I found myself saying, “Gabriel! So those little movements I saw… That was you!”

He laughed; the sound was like music from above. “Haha! I’m your angel, aren’t I?” he asked. “I can’t leave you all alone with anyone else~! Don’t worry; that demon was no match for me. Small fry, really.”

“Surely you can’t begrudge me time with my best friends,” I told him in a mock-scolding voice as I examined him. “And you told me to bring them here.” How eerie that the battle I had just imagined him taking part in had actually happened. Angel or not, for someone whose clothes appeared to be as bloodstained as they were, he was surprisingly chipper. As my friends ran over, I scrutinized his seeming wounds. Indeed, all of the blood drying on the side of his polo seemed… foreign… somehow, despite their characteristic rust color. What I found more interesting was that, although his wings were unsheathed, they were impossibly clean, given that he had just come from a supernatural scuffle. Unable to help myself, I reached out to brush my hand lightly against those silky feathers; it twitched momentarily away from my palm as Gabriel registered the contact before settling comfortably into my palm. His eyes only left mine when my friends slowed their approach, eyes widened at what he had become.

“Whoa… So you’re a real angel?” Amy asked. Even when she had finished speaking, her mouth hung open as wide as her eyes. Mariana, on the other hand, remained speechless, though her eyes were no less huge.

Gabriel and I shared an amused, almost conspiratorial grin. After turning himself around, he spoke for me, puffing his chest out importantly. “Why, yes, Amy,” he announced. “I am the archangel Gabriel himself, sent from Heaven to guard Lisa’s family for countless generations now. I must say, she has been a fine specimen of the human race. Though I carry my horn with me always, I will soon have no need of even that, if everyone here behaves exactly as she!”

It took all of my effort to not laugh at that moment. He never tired of this joke, did he? Both of us knew that Gabriel, my Gabriel, was no archangel—he was merely a guardian who happened to bear the same name. Mariana stirred then, critically eyeing his belt. “You don’t have it on you,” she accused quietly.

“I don’t need to physically carry it with me; it can be summoned instantly.” Gabriel’s face seemed dead serious.

“Truly? Then do it.” Mariana’s face bore an odd smile; I couldn’t tell whether it was smug or merely eager.

What I could tell was that something had faltered in Gabriel’s expression, even if his smile hadn’t dropped any. Fortunately, I had prepared for such a joke, albeit for different reasons. Sidling closer to him, I worked a hand behind his wing and into my bag, withdrawing a two-foot-long brass trumpet. His wings twitched against the back of my neck; I couldn’t resist an involuntary sigh of bliss. By this time, Gabriel had figured out what I intended to do—blessed angel—and had likewise slipped his free hand behind his back. Unwilling to turn around and aim my hand properly, I simply flailed the bell up and down until it connected with something solid. Bell met hand with more force than I had intended, and I cringed to imagine the jolt I had given him. To his credit, Gabriel did not flinch. Unwinding his arm from around my shoulders, he revealed my trumpet with a flourish and proceeded to toot Gloria, In Excelsis Deo. Silence reigned for many seconds. At this point, neither of us could maintain sobriety any longer. I was the first to crack. At some point during his impromptu recital, I had begun grinning; now I laughed, loud and long, at having pulled off such a ruse for this long. Amy joined in, and even Mariana had a wide (for her) smile on her face. Gabriel, for his part, was laughing merrily along with us, even as he turned the little brass trumpet over marveling in his hands. “Wow, Lisa,” he remarked. “I had thoroughly expected to fail that little challenge. A horn of my own! When did you get it?”

I snuggled closer to him, my grin indolent. “Just a week ago,” I told him. “To celebrate our being together for almost a year already.”

“What?!” Amy’s face was indignant. “You knew about this for a year?! Why didn’t you tell either of us sooner?!”

I inclined my head towards her. “No; we were together for a year. I didn’t find out about this until a few months ago.” As I said that, I reached backwards to stroke his feathers. I probably looked utterly at ease there, nestled among those white feathers, and it was probably true. God, I loved the feel of those feathers on my skin like a thousand downy kisses.

Gabriel averted his gaze from his new toy to nod affirmation to the others. “Indeed. Let me tell you—showing her this was probably the best thing I’d ever done.” He laughed and flared his wings, sending up a gust of wind. Though when folded, they stood only slightly taller than he, when fully extended, they stretched some fifteen feet long. “That day, when she accepted me like this, I probably felt better than a homo coming out of the closet for the first time.”

I shoved against his side, teasingly. “Lucky for you, I’ve always wanted to fly.”

“When our anniversary actually comes, I will. Promise.” His eyes were twinkling then, but they quickly regained most of their seriousness. Most of it. “But seriously,” he continued, addressing Mariana now. “I am not the archangel Gabriel and so do not have his horn, but I do revere him most of the seven. I was assigned to Lisa four years ago, back in sophomore year, but couldn’t actually find her until near the end of that year. Afterward, I began arranging my classes to more closely fit hers, but didn’t actually begin working with her on anything until in the second half of senior spring.”

“Stalker.” Amy dragged out the vowel as she spoke. Placing her hands on her hips, she gazed up and down at him. “Wow… I never thought I’d get to meet a real-life angel.”

“Ha, yeah…” Gabriel laced his hands behind his head, creating a sort of pillow. “I’d been intending to show you two sooner or later anyway, since there may come a time when Lisa will need… protection.”

“Protection? What sort of protection can we provide that you can’t?”

Unlacing his hands, he sighed and took them both in. Only now did his eyes betray the concern her must be feeling. “Obscurity. Associating too closely with me may invite demonic attack, so there may come a time when I need Lisa to hide with you. We angels can feel when demons are close; the opposite also holds true. But our ‘close’ is different than yours. There is an accord that neither side is supposed to break regarding humans, but demons always find some way to subvert the system. If one finds me too close to Lisa—or any of you, for that matter—they could exploit our connection to make me do something… undesirable.” He shuddered. “Don’t go testing a demon’s imagination, is all I can say.”

“Oh… okay.” Even Miss Exuberant was beginning to sound uncertain. “So… you still haven’t told us exactly what we can do to help.”

Gabriel smiled, but it seemed wearier now. “Keep being good friends to her—Take her in, even, if the worst happens. I’ll take care of the fighting. And if ever you try to find me when I’m gone… Take care not to be seen. Even by me.”

Silence again. This time, Gabriel broke it, his head jolting sharply to the right as he glared at something only he could see. When he returned his gaze to us, his eyes were still narrowed. “I’m sorry; I have to go,” he apologized, seeming to realize only then that he was still glaring at us. “I’m sensing another Hellspawn farther west; a bigger one, too.” Gently, he returned the trumpet to my hands. “Would you be an angel and hold onto that for me?” he asked. “Can’t go staining our anniversary present now, can I.”

That humor, even in dire times, was still so endearing. I nodded at him. “Of course, Gabe.”

“I’ll see you later.” With a swift downward beat of his wings, he lifted into the air, hovering a foot above us, Leaning in, he gave me a quick aerial kiss before pulling back and shooting towards the clouds. We all watched him go until he disappeared into the distance, and after a while, Amy lowered her chin to stare at me. “Man, you really lucked out with him,” she commented, still incredulous. “Smart, sexy, and supernatural… Who would’ve thought?”

“I know…” A wan smile graced my face, but inside, I was more worried than I had been before. Gabriel’s departure was like an adrenaline crash—now that he was gone, I felt his concerns more potently than I had even seconds ago. In this regard, I was totally dependent on him. Our meetings were being cut shorter and shorter now. What if he couldn’t fend off the next attack—or even worse, what if it found me before he did? Would the rest of my mortal life be spent in hiding?

I didn’t see Amy approach me; when she put her hand on my shoulder, I jumped. Her gaze was sympathetic. “Don’t worry, Lisa,” she told me. “He’ll make it back alive. I know that now. And if those demons ever make it back to us, I’ll give them a what-for with my rifle! Right, Mari?” Her Texan accent had returned then, and she grinned fiercely at the other girl, awaiting her answer.

Mariana nodded and struck a one-handed ninja jutsu. “I can teach you my ways, if need be, as well.”

My heart lifted at that. Their words had restored my confidence that we could survive this and that our friendship was none weaker by this revelation. Truly, they were as good friends as any army of angels—or even one.

My one.