A/N: So, this was supposed to be a drabble for a thing on tumblr, but it kind of exploded so I figured I'd post it here. It's an AU about Feli and Ludwig and Feli's gen!flipped. That's about all you need to know.
An Angel Watches
Ludwig had never believed in guardian angels.
He was a logical sort of person, after all. Supernatural things—aliens or vampires or Bigfoot or God or angels—just didn't fit into the world that he woke up to every day. And it was hard enough to handle the workings of a normally irrational, illogical world without muddying it up with other things.
He was a mechanic; he worked with and understood things like machinery parts and numbers. He worked long days and tossed and turned through restless nights so he could survive. So he could make car payments and get rent in every month. Plus he needed to buy extra groceries to take over to his sister's apartment; otherwise she'd probably starve herself to death as she had a tendency to forget to eat when she was distracted by a new project.
Ludwig hadn't set foot inside a church since he was fifteen-years-old and had decided that he didn't believe in God and didn't see any point in pretending he did. Why, then, had he been chosen to be the recipient of an angel's guardianship?
He winced as a finger reached out and poked curiously at the skin underneath the eye that he knew was rapidly bruising. It was probably a lovely shade of indigo by now and he probably looked like he'd gotten into a bar fight and lost horribly. Which, if you guessed that that's what happened, you'd be a hundred percent correct…
"Ve~" The finger jerked back and a high-pitched voice exclaimed, "I'm sorry, Ludwig! I didn't know that they'd get so angry!"
Ludwig's guardian angel had appeared two nights ago while he was getting changed to go to work. One minute he was alone and the next she was standing right in the middle of his bedroom with her arms outstretched and a beatific expression on her face as she stared up at the ceiling. She'd completely ignored his shocked yelp as he pulled his pants on with one hand and grabbed at his cell phone with the other.
She'd introduced herself as Feliciana, his personal guardian angel. Of course, he hadn't believed her until she revealed her wings. Blindingly white, so large that they passed through the walls of his room as if they were immaterial.
Actually, if he had to be honest, he didn't believe her even after she'd shown off her wings. Not until he'd pinched himself a dozen times and checked all of his medications for 'side effect: hallucinations'. She'd just stood there while he freaked out, watching him and making an odd sound like "ve~ ve~" every so often.
Feliciana had told him, after he stopped totally flipping out and had gotten himself completely dressed, that she was his own personal guardian angel. Sent to guide him and help him follow his dreams. Like they were in a Disney movie, or something.
Ludwig half expected his sister to be behind this, even though her wings looked pretty real and he had no idea how even Gill could make someone poof out of nowhere.
To be honest, three days later and Ludwig still wasn't a hundred percent convinced that he wasn't the victim of some grand, insane prank. He'd sat down on the bed that night and listened as Feliciana gave her spiel about how he'd 'pleased God' and how she was going to 'personally help him'. She'd seemed rather confused and disappointed when he told her that he didn't have any special dreams. But then she'd perked up like Pollyanna and said that she'd have to help him find some, then.
All she'd done so far, however, was get him into a bar fight.
How? Well, to be fair, it probably hadn't been the best idea to take someone like Feliciana—who was probably both the most innocent and most curious person he'd ever met—to a bar. But he was getting sick of her constant questions about his 'dreams' and 'goals' and 'what have you always always wanted to do, ve, Ludwig?'
So he'd decided to take her out for a few drinks. Because…that's what you did with people, right?
Everything had been going well for a while. Feliciana asked a lot of questions about the drinks and why exactly it was that people liked alcohol so much. He'd mostly ignored her chattering, bought her the drinks that had as little actual alcohol in them as possible, and drank his own beers.
When a friend came over and started chatting. Ludwig had stopped paying attention to Feliciana for just a few minutes and when he turned around, she wasn't there…
His friend apparently noticed his beginning panic, though, since he pointed toward the doorway, "I think your girlfriend's over there." And yes, of course, there Feliciana was… Standing near the door, completely surrounded by a group of big, burly guys. Smiling happily, apparently oblivious to the danger she was in.
For a guardian angel, she was pretty terrible at guarding. Ludwig had hurried to her rescue and somehow, in the ensuing few minutes, had ended up embroiled in a bar fight.
"I'm sorry, Ludwig," and now Feliciana was apologizing for the millionth time and reaching toward his face again.
"It's fine," he responded, moving away before she could poke at his bruise again. He was already imagining what his sister would say when she saw him. She'd probably want to know exactly what had happened and then laugh at him. Ugh, for once in his life he was actually hoping that she would be in one of her moods when he saw her next.
"But I was supposed to help you," Feliciana looked like she was about to cry. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
And now he was going to be stuck dealing with a weeping angel…
"It's fine, I promise. I've had worse…" Like the first time Gill had demanded that he be the guinea pig for one of her 'inventions'. She'd been five-years-old and had built a flying machine out of sheets, some sticks, and lots and lots of duct tape. And he'd, of course, been the one to test it by jumping out of a tree. He ended up with a broken arm and Gillian had been more upset that he'd broken her flying machine.
"But," she sniffled and rubbed at her nose with the sleeve of the hoodie he'd let her borrow—the white robe-dress thing she'd arrived in would be rather conspicuous around here. "I'm supposed to help you follow your dreams, ve~. But—but instead you got hurt… I'm—I'm a terrible guardian!" And now she started crying. Hard.
Ludwig hated to deal with crying, especially when it was a woman crying. He'd always been a bit lucky when it came to his sister. Sure, she might lock herself in her room for days on end and refuse to acknowledge the real world, but at least she'd never cried in front of him.
"Feliciana…" He rubbed at his nose, which was also sore but thankfully not broken. "Look, just because we didn't find my…dream…today and I got a little hurt, doesn't mean that you're a bad guardian. We can always try again tomorrow."
She looked up at that, sending him a look like he was the most brilliant person in the entire world. "Ve~ Really?"
Ludwig knew that he was going to regret this, but he nodded. "Yeah, why not?"
"Ve~ I'll show you, Ludwig!" Feliciana jumped up and suddenly grabbed his face between her little hands. And stared at him in a way that was rather disconcerting.
"Uh, Felicia—"
"Shh, ve, I'm fixing you!"
He didn't move, just sat there with her cradling his face between her palms. And then, he started feeling something like a coolness begin to spread across his face. Centering around his eye… He blinked a few times, the feeling definitely a little strange.
But after a few moments, it began to dissipate. The coolness seeping away, seeming to move up and into her hands. And then, when it was all gone, she leaned in and kissed his eyelid.
"There you go, Ludwig! I'll see you tomorrow!" And just like that, Feliciana was gone.
Ludwig just sat there for a few moments, too shocked to move. But then he jerked to his feet and stumbled his way to the mirror.
Not a mark on his face; not even old scars, like the one from when he'd nicked his chin shaving a few weeks ago. He reached up and touched the skin beside his eye. No soreness…
And he just stood there and wondered what the hell had happened to his normal, most of the time makes sense, life.
A/N: …I actually don't have anything to say down here. Hopefully the Anon who requested this on tumblr enjoys it. They also requested two others that I'll get to soon. And will hopefully actually STAY drabble length.
Oh, and I think the prompt was meant to be a Pleasantville story, but I've been watching an insane amount of angel movies recently, so... I have angels on the mind... Although the angels in most of the movies I watch are evil or dickish. Or both. Often both.
Also, I'm getting a bunny soon! It's a cutie pie. Brown and white, with floppy ears. And his name is gonna be Sherlop. :D The pet store's just keeping him a few days to make sure he's healthy. As long as he is *crosses fingers* he'll be coming home by the end of the week. Eeep!
