E-mail: angelchildr@freaky.nu
Rating: R? Femslash
Summary: They're among us, but only for the believers.
Series: Today's Angels
Distribution: http://penned-insanity.freaky.nu/ (My site) or ask.
Author's Note: Written as a holiday gift (2003) for Miss Jessi.

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She was too perfect to be true. Which, really, was sort of the point.

I'd met her on the subway of all places. Looking out of place but not particularly worried about it. Amazingly, I seemed to be the only one in the whole car that even noticed that she was there. I couldn't understand how anyone could not notice.

She had long dark hair that caught the sickly light of the car and turned it into something more like starlight than anything else. Her skin was fair and clear, and looked as fresh as if this was the first time the polluted city air had ever touched it. She wasn't facing me, so I stared at her, not able to help myself.

She turned then, as if aware I was watching her, and smiled. Her eyes were nearly clear, a shade so light I couldn't even call it blue. And they lit up when she smiled, like we were long-separated friends that had finally been reunited.

I looked down then, embarrassed at having been caught staring. I kept my gaze down for the rest of my ride.

The train shuddered as it pulled to a stop at my station, and I hurried off, hoping to blend in with the crowd.

A hand found its way to my arm and gently stopped me in the flow of traffic. People continued on without ever running into us, but hardly even registering that we were there at all. The fingers on my arm were long and pale, appearing almost fragile, but with a soft strength I couldn't ignore.

"Wait. Don't go." Her voice was hardly more than a whisper, but I heard her clearly in the loud station, almost as if her voice was in my head. "You're the first person that's seen me all day." I found that hard to believe, but there was something about her made me think she couldn't lie to me even if she wanted to.

I couldn't think of anything to say that didn't sound ridiculous, and I winced when I introduced myself and even that sounded awkward. She didn't seem to mind though, and introduced herself as well.

Gabriel. Only she pronounced it the way a man would. Like the angel from the Bible. I said as much and she laughed, a sound that made my heart soar to hear it. She nodded, almost as if it made sense for me to say that.

The crowd of evening commuters had been moving around us the entire time, but only now did she look around at them.

"Let's leave them."

I nodded, and though I don't remember the walk, we eventually ended up back at my apartment. We were barely through the door before I felt her hand against the dip of my waist, her soft breath against the nape of my neck where my hair was still pulled up in a twist from work.

I turned at her touch and up close she smelled like late summer in the country, of long sweet grass and wildflowers. Her lips hovered near mine, and she whispered, her voice filling my empty apartment.

"Do you know how hard it is to find someone like you? Millions of people in this city, and hardly anyone believe in us anymore. They walk by like we aren't even there. It's painful, all the non-believers."

I didn't understand what she was talking about, but before I could ask she leaned in and kissed me. It made colors spark behind my eyes and my breath catch. Time folded again and we were in my bed, her skin beneath my hands. She was smooth, almost cool to the touch, and entirely unreal.

I don't remember much from that point on other than her skin, her hands, her eyes. A soft feeling against my face that was between a mother's kiss and a lover's caress.

I woke the next morning alone in my bed, something balanced on the empty pillow next to me. I turned and picked it up, my eyes going wide when I realized what it was and what it meant.

I held a white feather as long as my forearm with a small card attached to it by a silver string. One word was penned darkly on the light paper.

"Believe."

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