Warning for whoever hasn't read this before:

Name changes

age changes

slight inadvertant OOC (Tolerable ... but mostly regarding Shuuichi)

and definate AU.

Don't harrass me about the names. BUT never fear because their real names will be back ... eventually. THERE'S A REASON. Reviews are greatly appriated and treasured so leave as many as you want. Flames will be laughed and mocked at. Suggestions and constructive critism will be framed and posted on my bedroom wall.

Is that it ...? Yep. Will you please give the story a chance::begs:

Maiko Shindou- (13) Maggie Shoeman

Shuichi Shindou - (16) Shane Shoeman

Ryuichi Sakuma - (17) Ryan Satterfield

Hiroshi Nakano- (17) Hilary (Hi) Nathan

Tatsuha Uesugi- (? looks 16) Thaddeus (Tad) Understold

Eiri Uesugi - (? looks 22) Eric Hueman

Tohma Seguchi - (?) Tohma Seguchi

Suguru Fujisaki - (15) Sullivan Fulk

Taki Aizawa - (18) Taylor Ainsworth

Ma-kun - (--) Mark Kurt

Ken-chan - (--) Ken Chandler

Noriko Ukai - (18) Nova Upton

Claude K Winchester - (? looks 25) Claude K Winchester

Sakano - (28) Mr. Sakner

Ayaka Usami - (?) Ayla Usher

Guardian

Eiri Uesugi was a Guardian Angel: an angel sent from the heavens above to protect whomever he was assigned and expected to preserve for some given amount of time. He could be seen should will wish for it, he could send movement impulses to the brain if it was to defend his charge from certain harm.

Eiri was normally assigned to the elderly or should a case be special; children below the age of ten. In no way had he ever been placed with a human between those ages, and he was perfectly content for the arrangements to remain thus. Teenagers were not what he considered in his 'usual catagory', and he had no desire to handle what he considered no more than hormonal animals otherwise.

Least of all did he want this particular child. While his superior seemed to have no intention of offering details as to -why- the previous Guardian had been driven away, Tohma Seguchi seemed mindset, though a bit reluctant, in forcing a very unhappy Eiri to watch the current gossip of Heaven. Angels had mortal traits too, and wild talk happened to be one of them. The details were never quite clear as most rumors would have it, but it had been passed around that the child was not quite as undesirable to Eiri Uesugi in a past life as he was now. Of course, the reluctant angel knew nothing about these rumors or why he was being moved to a different age group. It was not in his place to question any higher authority for the sake of an orderly Zion however, and all Eiri could consider at the moment was that he would much rather be doing something unproductive; such as experiencing another death.

"I'll have to decline."

Tohma sighed and rubbed a temple, a bit frustrated at the man sitting opposite his side of the brightly gleaming desk. "You don't have much of a choice Eiri."

"I have an opinion though, don't I?" Eiri scowled with his arms folded in an adolescent manner.

"Of course." The other man confirmed, "It just doesn't matter in this particular decision."

Since all other resources except explicit begging had been used in the past hour of bickering, Eiri felt resorting to childish whining could be his ultimatum at this point; he was not above such a tactic. "Why do I get this kid?" The grown man complained, "Not just any: an obnoxious, annoying, loud, screaming, whining one! Any other kind of child will do. Just not this one." Then the magic word felt need to slip from his protesting lips. "Please?"

The other sighed again and ran a hand through his unruly yellow hair, "I hate seeing you beg,"

A statement Eiri was currently doubting ...

"But I'm afraid you get this one." Tohma finished decidedly, and stared the other man in the eye until a reluctant grumble could be heard throughout the endless white room surrounding them.

"I understand." Eiri muttered and threw his hands in the air in a dramatic show of defeat. "What is the kid's name again?"

Tohma reached over and plucked a single sheet of paper from one of the many stacks littering his desk. 'Organized clutter' Tohma often fondly refered to his desk as. What the clutter actually was beyond information of millions of people; no one actually knew. "A Shane Shoeman. In Toadstone High School, America."

Eiri leaned back with folded arms and briefly considered a thought. "When do I get a first glance at him?" He asked, reluctance still lacing his speech.

Tohma frowned and chose a feather pen that sat randomly amongst his many papers and began scratching on the sheet still in his hands. "In two days." He informed. "You won't show yourself for awhile though. Not until you're familiar with him."

The lesser angel frowned and tugged absent mindedly at the white sleeves draping his arms. "Since I'll be invisible for the time being, do I have to wear those damn wings?" He found the steriotypical wings he was constantly made to wear extremely annoying. The white feathered things only seemed to serve hinder his movement when his location happened to be diminutive.

Tohma rolled his eyes but continued writing, "Yes, you know the dress code."

Eiri scowled, "What's the point in them anyway?"

"For effect."

"But my unveracious beauty should be enough." He replied dryly.

"You have to wear them. Invisible or not," Tohma glanced up from his absorbing task. "an unknown, nearby angel has to know your purpose for being there and vice versa." He said as he waved his pen in lecture. "You know the problems that may arise if they think you're a demon ..."

The short version was: demons can easily appear as angels. Eiri knew that this answer was the end of their conversation and would revieve no more humoring. He watched as the paper that had been scrawled upon was rolled into a neat cylinder and briefly shimmered gold before it burst into speckled dots amidst Tohma's palm.

The placid blond offered a smile. "I hope there are no problems with this one." Sympathy enlaced his speech, "From what I read about him he really is a nice boy, just some head issues ..."

Eiri snorted and stood impatiently from his chair. "Just watch Seguchi, he'll be more trouble than he's worth."

In its delightful lure from Dreamland the comforting scent of breakfast reached him. It was a very pleasant way to wake. No annoying alarm clock, no prodding mothers or screeching sisters or insistent phone calls at a time vampires would still be awake. Non of that: simply waking in a steady doze because the amount of sleep recieved had been enough.

"SHANE! GET UP! IT'S ALMOST NINE-A-CLOCK!"

So much for screeching sisters that made nine-o-clock sound as though that was late for a Saturday. Shane groaned, grabbing his pillow and pulling it over his head to block out the suddenly annoying sounds. He could skip breakfast if it meant sleeping in; he wasn't supposed to meet Ryan until 12:00 anyway. Three extra glorious hours of sleep ...

His bedroom door suddenly swung open.

"UP UP UP!"

Oh, be gone irritating person that brings irritating sounds ... "Go away Maggie ... not right now ..." He mumbled grumpily into his mattress.

Maggie bore a prankish smile and kicked the bed her brother was buried in. "C'mon, you're supposed to give me a ride to my piano lessons, remember?" She accented this by shaking the bed more with a sock covered foot.

Underneath the pillow Shane stuck his tongue at her. "Why not mom or dad?" Asked his muffled voice.

She tilted her head sideways, and considered this for a brief moment. "They both work all day today."

The boy's frown could be heard in his speech as he attempted to resist Maggie's logic. "It's only a mile away. You could walk."

"You haven't eaten yet, you still need to get dressed, I still need to get dressed, it would take a half an hour to walk and you take longer in the bathroom then I do."

Shane sighed in defeat, and as he sat up he threw back his covers with the intent of hitting Maggie with them just to be obnoxious.

"You ass!" She cried indignantly.

The older boy laughed, stretching his arms before grabbing a pair of jeans off the floor. He smirked over his shoulder, wiggling his boxer covered rear. "Yes. I have a very nice one."

"I'll kick it. And your beating will be painful."

Ryan Satterfield glanced at his watch for the umpteenth time in the past fifteen minutes. Shane was late: again! Not that he should be surprised, but he didn't have all day to wait around after all. Ryan pouted at the worn pink bunny sitting in his lap. Teddy was getting annoyed also. What was that Teddy? Sock him once in the face as soon as he gets here? No, that's not nice: he has to look pretty for when we go on stage. You're right ... he might look better with a black eye. Oh look! A robin!

Ryan attentively watched from a park bench as a robin fluttered from tree to tree. The park he was in was rather large; brick sidewalks splayed from the huge water fountain in the center of the nature scenes, trees littered the area but not at random. It even had a hedge maze and a small man-made meadow.

"RYAN!"

His eyes widened when he heard his name in the distance. The blue-eyed boy turned to see Shane running clumsily, nearly tripping over his own feet as blond hair spilled over his face. The running wreck reached the other gasping for breath with his his black jacket hanging over his shoulders.

Ryan remained silent for a moment before he bemusedly stated, "You bleached it again."

"Just...washed it...out." Shane wheezed.

"Your following will miss the blue."

"I'm thinking of pink next."

Ryan immediately hopped from his bench enthusiastically. "Pink! Like Teddy?" He asked childishly, holding out the bunny.

Shane laughed, "Yeah, like Teddy."

Ryan nodded his approval then gave the other boy a friendly pat on the back, "C'mon, I gotta get to the store before they decide I'm not coming." The currently-blond boy shook his head in agreement. There were a few moments of comfortable silence before Shane suddenly thought of an important question.

"You brought the money right?" He asked, and turned to look at the one walking next to him.

Ryan halted in his tracks. "Umm..." The younger of the two rolled his eyes as Ryan began searching his many pockets.

Eiri silently scowled to himself as he violently wrote in the worn notebook lying in his lap. The glare he was directing at it would make a passer-by think his anger was at the paper itself. However, the paper was in no way the cause for his frustration, it was merely a vent; the conversation with Tohma was still bothering him. Why did he have to get a teenager? The last one he dealt with was over five hundred years ago. And he had nearly killed the boy: literally. Eiri let out an exasperated breath, setting down his pen on the abused notebook.

"Looking intense there."

The blond glanced up at the boy standing before him. He wore a wide grin with his hands planted on his hips. He was a very pretty boy with short jet black hair and friendly dark eyes that sparkled with amusement. One looking from elsewhere could see immeadiatly that the two angel's faces were nearly clones, though Eiri had never given that fact a second thought. It had never been an important question. Along with his arrogant grin the other wore wings, that he proudly displaying and flaunting the four layers that marked him as 'on the job'.

"What do you want, Thaddeus?"

Thaddeus pouted, feigning innocence. "Here I try to be friendly and you go all crabby on me." Eiri raised an accusing eyebrow, provoking a hearty laugh to escape the other angel's lips, "I saw you storming out of Tohma's office grumbling to yourself and I was curious. That and you only seem to come to the lounge when you're annoyed."

"Is that all?" The blond grunted.

"What happened?" The black haired boy inquired honestly.

Eiri looked away, to hide the self-pitiying expression he was indulging himself in, "I got the Shoeman brat." he muttered irrately, and ducked his head to return to the important task of writing.

Thaddeus' mouth formed an 'O' of sympathy before twisting into an amused smirk. "Wow, Gloria herself was driven batty with that guy."

"You're not helping." Eiri scowled.

"When do you see him?"

"Monday, their time."

Thaddeus' lips twitched restraintedly, "Wanna see him earlier?"

Eiri looked from his notebook. "What?"

The one annoying him grinned again. "Oh, you don't remember? I was with her half the time. I watch Shoeman's friend Ryan Satterfield." Eiri's curiosity rapidly began getting the best of him. Damn the smart aleck for actually knowing what he was talking about. For the sake of pride, he did not ask the questions bothering him and looked back at his notebook.

Thaddeus laughed, sitting next to Eiri and made himself comfortable. "From what I see almost every day he's altogether an idiot. An honest idiot at that occasionally shows some beam of intelligence . . ." The boy glanced at Eiri to make sure he was listening. He chuckled again as the other man again pretended not to show interest.

"He has this thing of changing his hair color every week . . ." He paused for a moment. "Right now Ryan and him are close friends and they have a band with this girl named Nova. I think they called it Stress...anyway. I can't really tell you much about his personal life besides Ryan; except he lives with his mom and sister, he's a talkative quiet guy, if that makes any sense, and altogether friendly."

Eiri's eyebrows furrowed with his frown, "So as soon as I have to talk to him in person he won't shut up. Right?" An enthusiastic nod was his answer. Eiri sighed and tucked his pen in the loops of the notebook and shut it, "So what about that seeing him earlier than planned?" He asked.

Thaddeus linked his arms behind his head, a thoughtful expression crossing his face, "Well, I could tell Tohma that I wanted to show you the layout of the town..."

The blond rolled his eyes, "Tohma's not that stupid. You might as well just say I'm sneaking a peek. At least that's believable." Thaddeus smirked, glancing at the other from the corner of his eye, "I don't think it really matters. After all, he's pretty lenient with you..."

A glare from Eiri cut him short. "Don't even bring up old rumors boy..." Eiri growled.

"Boy?" Thaddeus snickered, "I'm older than you."

"And then we have that life experience factor."

"I still know more about this place then you do." The brunet retorted.
"No wonder you were murdered. You probably provoked the guy."

The accusation did not seem to bother Thaddeus in the slightest. "There was never any evidence saying I didn't." The boy laughed. Eiri shrugged, not agreeing, not disagreeing. Thaddeus snickered quietly, stood and stretched his arms.

"I'll see you later then. I'll even go fill out the paper work because I'm such a nice guy." He said with a wink.

The man still sitting frowned suspiciously. "What do you want in return? I know you don't do things for free."

Thaddeus was already walking. He glanced over his shoulder with a grin not befitting of an angel. "I'll just write a rain check and get back to you on that."

Eiri watched the other's body glow gold and disappear. The lounge was suddenly empty, nothing but white surrounding the angel in its vast loneliness. He sighed and slidi his fingers through his yellow hair as a reluctant sign he was actually missing Thaddeus' presence already. 'Time for a nap until he gets back I guess . . .'

Eiri stood, eyes closed and quietly muttered to himself. His body glowed silver and dissipated into nothingness, leaving the white space to ponder to itself in emptiness; an emptiness that would surely drive one insane should they have been abandoned in its warm depths.