(Origial Story) Guardian

[tsukinofaerii]

Guardian
by tsukinofaerii
Words: ~4000
Rating: SNUG
Summary: A singularly inept angel finds himself trying to guide a girl who doesn't need nearly as much guiding as he seems to think, and in the process becomes a little more human.

Author's Notes: This is one of the few original short stories I've actually completed, and it's a bit odd even for me.

Quote: I am officially traumatized for the rest of my immortal life.

I give up.

This really is too much to accept, even for an angel. No one warned me that this would be so frustrating, nor this difficult, and certainly no one spoke of the absolute insanity that affects normally sane mortals at the oddest of times. Such as now. Belle used to be such a sweet little cherub of a baby. Never cried in the middle of the night unnecessarily, easy to potty train and almost completely unable to even think of staying awake past her bedtime. She actually liked her vegetables and never, ever disobeyed her mother.

Maybe this is what Master Velinci warned me about in training. He was right, I should have chosen a boy, I honestly thought that since little girls are so much sweeter, a girl would be easier to protect. I was horribly wrong - they're harder. Much, much harder, especially after age eleven. How was I supposed to know teenage girls were this hard to guard? Maybe I should retire and let Violet take over. She is a girl, after all, so she must know something of them. She would be able to fix this. Hopefully.

Right now the little imp is half way out her bedroom window, in a skirt that's several inches too short and lipstick that is far to red. Her over night bag is already on the ground outside the window, waiting to be picked up and carried off to whatever sinful destination she has planned.

I am not overly concerned about her plans tonight. I know how this little adventure will end, and it is certainly not how she hopes. The moment she put on that horrible make-up (truly a gift from the Devil if there ever was one), I lost all opportunity to stop this charade. I tried dropping hints to her parents, but they ignored me. I hid her chosen clothing. She chose another set. I even sent her nightmares of the horrible things that can happen to a young girl, out on her own in the middle of the night. The little idi- oh, dear. I really must learn to watch my language. The stress must be affecting me… In any matter, she didn't even remember the nightmares, which were my last option.

The only option left is to mitigate the damage. The gate to the front yard is already rusted through, so it's no effort at all to let the wind put a bit more pressure on it and let it fall, creating a gap just big enough for Belle's bloodhound, Gelli, to slip through. That animal had better follow her. He has never failed to before, but Murphy's Law has truly been against me this night...

Yes, Gelli (bless his furry little soul) is following her into the woods. With any luck, he shall be able to summon the help I am incapable of reaching. I have to follow along, hovering just over head. Being a Guardian Angel certainly is not a part-time occupation, and I have no intentions of letting anything untoward happen to my charge. Well, nothing that is unavoidable. Thank the good Lord for future-vision, or this night would be more doomed than it already is.

When Belle trips over the root, right... now, and the old, rotten willow tree inevitable gives way... here, it was unavoidable that she would become trapped under it, unconscious and nearly alone. All I can do is wring my hands and hope Gelli bays loudly enough to attract help before she catches pneumonia. I have fulfilled my contract and done everything I possibly could to allow her an escape, but it is all up to the mortals now. If Gelli isn't loud enough, or elderly Mr. Dransen doesn't leave late for dinner at his son's house, or if he drives down highway eighty-seven rather than taking country lane twelve... There are so many things that can go wrong, it is amazing that mortals live to create more mortals, even with divine intervention.

All that's left is the waiting.

I abhor waiting.

***

Belle is sulking in her room. Really, she should be grateful to come away with only a few scratches and some bruises, but I suppose she never thought of that. Gelli was praised as the excellent dog that he is for calling as well as he did, as should be. I will have to be sure to have someone slip him an extra meaty bone at some point in the future. Belle, however, was sent to her room and is "grounded", a concept I am not quite certain I understand, but is apparently some form of punishment. She should be punished, for worrying her parents so horribly. Perhaps it will aid in preventing similar occurrences in the future. She's thirteen years old. Certainly she is adult enough to accept her punishment and follow the rules laid out for her, now that they have been reinforced with a suitable punishment.

Violet is laughing at me now with that silly British accent she's contrived. How in the Seven Levels she achieved that is beyond me. Maybe she picked it up from her last mortal.

"What's so funny?" I'm not pouting. I refuse to pout.

So maybe I am, but it's only a little!

"You!" she giggled, rolling backwards, top over wings in amusement. Her emerald-colored hair keeps getting in her eyes, the long curls flipping overhead to dangle under her chin. I wonder how she got permission to change the color from blonde? It looks so different next to her angelic blue eyes. "You bloody stupid git! I can't believe you actually believe that stupidity. 'Accept her punishment'? Honestly!" She flips again, passing through Belle's ceiling with one of her feet. Now she's moving so quickly, I'm surprised that she's not dizzy. "You're such a man."

I wish she could act a bit more dignified. "Is that supposed to be an insult?"

Without any warning, she spread her wings wide and stopped spinning, so close that I can count her eyelashes. When did she start wearing mortal make up? There's some glittery stuff around her eyes, and she's smiling like Belle's cat. My eyes are trying to cross to look at her, but it's hard because she keeps beating her wings and distracting me, completely unnecessarily I might add.

"Maybe." She floats a little closer until our noses are touching.

Completely against my will, I back up. "Violet, you're scaring me."

Violet's smirk turns just a little more sinister. I think she's been taking lessons from Luci. "Good." Before I can do anything, she pops through the dimensions and into the astroplane.

Women.

***

College. My nemesis and arch-enemy, containing all the objects and situations I've slowly learned to watch for. Beer, boys, drugs... They all make an appearance eventually in the average party. I even had to fend off a few young women, who obviously don't care much for the laws of nature. In their own defense, their Angels were nowhere in sight, so their lack of guidance is hardly their fault. I almost molted my wing feathers when my ward seemed to seriously consider their proposition. Belle has calmed so much since her bursts of adolescent idiocy, but she still has her moments, and that was obviously one of them. Fortunately, she decided that she had to study and would be unable to have any illicit interludes, though she did accept both girls telephone numbers. I made certain to spill soda on them until they were illegible. My charge will remain pure until marriage, even if it kills her.

She's really grown up to be beautiful now, with that charming smile and the woman's body that she waited most of her life for. It's not so surprising that she's so popular among the boys. I'm up to the job of fending off the unacceptable ones.

Why in the world did I think that an institution of learning would be safe from worldly corruption? It's worse than high school had been, and there had been a number of incidents there that very nearly lost me my wings. Honestly, how was I supposed to know what "Strip Poker" is? It's not in her manual.

Right now she's speaking with a young graphic arts Major. I approve. The boy has a soothing aura, and seems to be quite the gentleman. She could certainly do better, but I can't find it in myself to quibble over details.

Oh, damnation. There's a ring on his finger. He's already taken. Why are the good ones all taken? Or gay. Or both, as it seems to be in this case. His boyfriend is quite a looker, though, for a male.

Is every student in this forsaken school Hell-bound? Belle just moved onto to yet another group. She seems to be asking for someone. I wonder who...

Oh. Him.

I knew that boy was trouble from the moment she met him. He's too... pretty. And arrogant. I have yet to understand what she sees in him. She needs a quiet, gentle, unassuming, average boy, preferably one with little opportunity to be unfaithful. Not a demon such as Jack. He drinks. He smokes. His sexual exploits are well known even to me. Even Henrei, his Angel, is helpless to save him from himself. The poor dear's turned to chocolate. I don't know if he'll ever recover.

Jack was on his way out with a nearly naked blonde tart, most likely on his way to do something horribly immoral and perhaps even illegal.

Oh, my stars. Belle was watching. My poor child seemed to have her heart set on that lout. Perhaps... Where is that girl? Liz, Liz, Liz... Ah, there she is. Just a little trick of the light, and some manipulation of the sound waves in the air and.. There, Belle has her comfort for the night. Liz is such a good friend for her, she's sure to convince her that Jack's no good, and maybe she'll get her to do that essay she's been putting off.

I'll simply have to increase the flow of acceptable suitors. One is bound to catch her eye and distract her from Jack, or at the very least offer another shoulder to cry on should she need it.

***

They're holding hands. My Belle is holding hands with that- that playboy Jack! They've been dating for two months, and it just keeps getting more sickening. Worse, Belle seems completely taken with the boy. She doesn't see him like I do. I know he only wants one thing, but she actually thinks that he likes her! My poor, dear, naïve Belle. I'll do my best to save her from herself. I can't help but comment on it.

Draped backwards over a line of force, legs stretched and pointed upwards towards Heaven, Violet sighs. "Primum, you're hopeless. Secundus, it's sweet. Tertius, they'll find a way." I ignore her. She's being such a... a woman about this entire matter. Every time I see her, she's acting silly and going on and on about how cute Jack and Belle are together, and how sweet young love is.

"I'll see you after class, alright sweetie?" Belle's snuggling up against Jack, and he's smiling. Ugh. He's probably already thinking of getting her in bed.

"You owe me a game of chess." He makes it sound like some sexual favor! Oh, for goodness sakes! They're rubbing noses now! Even Violet looks a little sickened, and she's shown a surprisingly high level of sap tolerance.

I'll give the boy this: he has excellent taste. My Belle is beautiful. I did an excellent job of clearing up her acne, if I do say so myself. She's almost pretty enough to be an angel. Maybe that's what's slated for her. All the more reason to make sure she's not sullied.

The heartless, hell-bound bastard Jack hasn't cheated on my charge yet, but it's only a matter of time, which is something my dearest Belle doesn't have, being mortal and all.

Neither young mortal bothers to watch where they put their hands either! I swear, she's likely to end up in an unsavory situation if they keep up like this, and the boy will have vanished completely, leaving her to raise the consequences and still attempt school.

Of course, I simply can't allow that to happen. It wasn't hard to give them that blown tire on their way to Lovers Peak, or to let Belle hear the rumors of that nasty disease he supposedly has (although that, sadly, turned out not to be true), or the barely more than passing test that had separated them for an entire two weeks while she made up for the bad grade.

Nothing's worked for long so far, though, and before long they always go back to sneaking moments after classes and holding hands in the cafeteria. It's sickening, it truly is. I've never heard of Jack moving so slowly with a young lady before, but he must have realized that my Belle isn't some loose woman and is putting effort into getting her into his bed. It's disgusting, the way he's been wooing her. Dinner and dancing and gifts - what girl wants that? If she would only stop long enough to see what's happening, I'm certain that she'd realize that she wants someone steady and simple, not the knee-melting love-sonnets and poetry bit that Jack's practically smothering her with.

He's even had the audacity to say he's given up alcohol and cigarettes, since my Belle doesn't approve. I doubt it. He's probably sneaking drinks with his buddies when she's not around, the unfaithful...

He'll slip. I know he'll slip. In the meantime, all I need to do is keep putting up obstacles until he gets fed up and moved on to seduce someone else's charge.

It's a study night for Belle, so she should be safe for the time being. Liz will be good enough to guard her for a few hours, with a little help from Violet, of course. The man upstai- Ahem. I mean, of course, the Lord, says he has something he'd like to talk with me about. With any luck, my request to have Jack accidentally placed in prison for a week has been granted.

"You're worrying too much." Violet's watching me. This decade, she decided to color her hair brown. It looks so much more natural than that silly green had, but when I told her that I got my hair pulled. Hmph.

"Belle's a good girl. She'll be fine without me for one night. What could possibly happen? Right?"

My sister angel bats her eyes, smiling sweetly. She really is a good person when she's not being confusing. "Of course she will be. And I'll be right here for her, making sure nothing awful happens."

Maybe I'm being unkind, but Violet's being too nice about this - she's usually not this helpful. I'll apologize for the thought after my talk with the Lord.

***

I object! This is an outrage! Never in my millennia of Angeling have I seen such a flagrant, obscene, cruel, heartless use of the holy union of matrimony. I wish I could just pop out of nowhere and shake some sense into her!

And that... that damned Violet was in on it! She plotted the whole thing, even going so far as to convince our Lord to help! I am going to have some very strong words with her after she comes back from being tossed in the Void. I should have retained better control of my temper, but... She deserved it. She really did.

I had an entertainingly long conversation with the Lord on the likelihood of a bumper rice crop in Asia. For seven mortal hours. I now know more about rice than I ever wanted to. When I returned to my charge, I found her... occupied with Jack. Very occupied. Very flexibly occupied. I never wanted to see my beautiful girl do something as degrading as that.

I am officially traumatized for the rest of my immortal life.

Currently I'm cowering in a corner of the hotel suit, while Belle and her new husband discuss their plans for the future. If murder wasn't a sin, that bastard would be dead right now. I've checked the logs. They're officially married, even by Heaven's laws, which can only mean that Jack's decided to draw out the game he's playing with Belle's heart. That's the only reason a son of a bitch like Jack would tie himself down to someone as sweet and kind as her.

Humph. They're discussing children. He must be lying. "I've always wanted a little girl." I wish he'd stop. I'm going to be ill if this keeps up much longer.

I'm so upset that I'm shedding feathers. Every time I step, they detach and vanish off to the astral plane. If I faded out, I would most likely find a tidy little pile, waiting to be swept up. How in the name of all that is good and holy and decent (unlike that bastard!) did they go from casual necking to married in under seven hours? It's just not possible.

Before I shoved Violet three dimensions over, she managed to explain that Jack was about to propose, and she and the Lord had thought it best to have my interference out of the way. Interference? I've never done anything but watch my charge with the utmost care! Even Violet, however, was at a loss as to what was going through Belle's mind when they "jumped the gun" and married immediately. I suspect mind-altering drugs.

I have my work cut out for me. I normally don't approve of divorce, but it seems to be the only option. That bastard will pay! I'll come up with something to scare him off. Something cruel and heartless, it's the only way to save my dearest Belle from a lifetime of suffering at that prick's hands.

***

Apparently, this is going to be harder than I thought. Jack's tenacious, I'll give him that, but even he won't be able to survive for long with only one sock out of every pair. He managed to survive the weeks of burned dinners and the radio being stuck on country, but a mortal man can only take so much. If this doesn't work, I'll have to break out the big guns. Thank goodness Belle loves the color pink. It shouldn't take too much work to make her want to paint their apartment that color.

"Pardon me? Did you say something?" Violet's seated demurely on the arm of the sofa. She looks a little transparent from her time in the Void, but it tends to do that. Luckily, she wasn't there that long, or she would probably need a few days of rest to have enough energy to straddle the physical and astral planes the way we do.

Since she seems curious, I tell her, "I'm going to have the walls painted pink."

Her nose wrinkles up. She's looking more solid by the moment. "Why pink?"

"The Bastard hates that color."

Violet's laughing. Again. For some odd reason, she never got upset at me for the "pitching into the Void" bit. Really, she needs to be at least a little serious. If she had a charge, I'd pity the poor mortal. As it is, I can only wonder why she hangs around me so much.

Belle is taking a nap and The Bastard (Jack's new name) is supposedly out shopping for a Christmas gift. I'd rather he didn't sully the word "Christ" with his filthy lips, but some things simply can't be helped. I called in some favors with Mark, the little cherub assigned to watch the city's traffic, so he should be out for at least a few hours. It's cold enough out that he should be miserable, regardless of whatever he's up to.

Violet's smiling more, but she's going transparent again. "Are you alright?"

"Of course!" She must be lying. She's still fading out, of course she's not alright.

"Maybe you should go rest? You look awful." Subtlety isn't one of the arts I've mastered. Laughing, she turns more visible.

"Thank you, dear," she drawls in that odd English accent of hers. "You're so sweet. I'll go take a rest, and you act stupid?"

"That was sarcasm."

"Of course. Toodles." Wiggling her fingers in farewell, she fades completely out of physical reality. Sometimes I worry about her. She's not nearly as tough as she seems.

I'll worry later though. Right now I just need to find a place to hide all of these socks.

***

"Dear, where's my socks? I can't find a pair!" Jack's running around the apartment, looking under tables and couch cushions. The idiot even looked inside the phonebook under the coffee table. For a conniving bastard, he's not as smart as I would have expected when Belle first met him. Right now he's wearing a single black sock on his left foot, and he looks very frustrated. Thank the Lord that they can't hear me laugh. I ended up dumping all of the excess socks into the dumpster, so they're long gone now. He'll never find them! I really shouldn't be enjoying this so much.

"Did you check your drawer?" Belle's washing dishes in the kitchen. She seems to enjoy her little domestic moments, such as dinner and dishes. She's going to make someone other than Jack a wonderful wife.

"There's only one of each."

"I pinned them together." She bends backwards and looks at her husband through the kitchen entry, hands still covered in suds.

"They're not there anymore then!" He looks ready to throw a fit. Any second now, he's going to get angry and leave, and my Belle will realize that he's all wrong for her and...

Maybe I'm dreaming, but it's still a nice thought. He might not have broken her heart yet, but he will, and then she'll be left to pick up the pieces, my poor dear.

"Will white do?"

"Sure, I just need to run to the store for milk."

"Check the laundry basket." She giggles. It's so innocent sounding, she really has no idea what kind of man she's shackled herself to. "You only have one type of white sock, so unless whatever's stealing them took the whole basket, there should be a pair."

Damnation! I forgot about that!

***

A year. They've been married for a year, and I'm at a loss as to explaining how The Bastard's managed to keep up the sickeningly sweet levels of affection he's been pretending at for the duration of the marriage. He did put his foot down at the paint idea, but, disappointingly enough, Belle didn't try to argue very much.

Unfortunately, whatever little happiness she managed to squeegee out of this situation is about to vanish. I knew this would happen, I really did. Now it's too late and she's about to end up hurt and alone. At least she was able to finish school, which gives my dear, dear charge a slightly better chance at weathering the trials to come.

Any minute now, she'll tell him that she's pregnant and he'll be gone before she can finish the sentence. The Bastard may have been able to force himself into marriage, but there's no way he'll stay through the serious commitment of a child, and I doubt Belle will even listen to the idea of an abortion.

Here it comes, she's saying it...

"I'm pregnant."

I've never seen a man turn so pale! Yes! No, wait, bad. I shouldn't be enjoying this, he's about to break her heart, but- what in damnation? He's smiling! Why is The Bastard smiling? No! It's not supposed to happen this way! They're kissing! Stop that! Don't put your hands there! Damn it!

Fine! That's it! She can make herself miserable with The Bastard for the rest of eternity if she wants to.

I give up.

Guardian by tsukinofaerii is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.