OTP week 2017
Pairing: Taichi and Yamato (Taiyama)
Prompt: Fantasy AU
Summary: A clumsy angel ends up in the wrong country and meets a bored office worker, who takes the angel in. Adjusting to life on Earth isn't always easy. Taiyama, Taito, AU, multi-chapter (though updates will be sporadic at best, apologies in advance)
Warnings: If you're very religious (Christian), then (what are you doing, reading my gay fanfics?) this might offend you.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Taichi Yagami sighed deeply as he made his way out of the office building he spent at least eight hours a day in. He had a boring nine-to-overwork job, and, whenever he was free, his boring friends never wanted to do anything fun.

With a yawn, he joined the mass of people walking down Tokyo's busy street. They were all eager to get home to their loved ones. Taichi, at 30, was boringly single.

Taichi turned right, onto a less crowded street. He inspected the faces of the other pedestrians, since now he could actually make out individuals. They all looked more-or-less alike. No one paid anyone else any heed; everyone just minding their own business. It was a bit boring.

"Hey, sorry?" Came a voice from Taichi's left.

Taichi turned, coming face-to-face with a pale, blond man, about his height. Taichi blinked at him a few times. He seemed to glow in an ethereal way.

The stranger shifted from one foot to the other, nervous. "I just wanted to ask if it hurt when you fell."

Taichi continued to stare.

The blond man looked even more uncomfortable, avoiding Taichi's eyes. "From Heaven, I mean. Because it kind of hurt when I did, and I thought that maybe I did it wrong…" His blue eyes met Taichi's brown from under blond strands.

"W-what?"

The blond's face was expectant. He glanced around at the people pushing past them.

"Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven? Because I think I bruised my ass falling." To highlight his point, the blond rubbed lightly at his backside.

Taichi's eyes were wide, mouth agape.

The stranger shifted to rub at his arm, eyes falling to the ground on Taichi's right.

Taichi noted that he was wearing a white, long-sleeved button-up with tight-fitting, ripped blue jeans. The shirt was tucked in and sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Smart casual—contrasting Taichi's business suit—but nothing otherworldly.

"You did fall, right?" The blond prompted, eyes again on Taichi.

"Um, no?" Taichi hedged.

Blue eyes widened, flying around their surroundings.

"Really?" When he received a nod as an answer, he placed a hand on his hip, the other running through his hair. "Shit."

Taichi looked around, noting that the stranger was attracting attention from passersby. Not that it was surprising: blonds were rare in Japan.

"Listen," Taichi turned back to the other man. "Um, if you need a place to stay or something, you can maybe come over to my place." What was he saying? Inviting a weirdo into his home. Shut up, shut up, shut up! "You know, at least until you've figured out what to do."

The blond smiled, and Taichi had to—maybe—go back and correct his earlier thought: there might actually be something otherworldly about him. Definitely not his clothes, though.

"Could I? Really? Because I think I just made a huge mistake—or a few, actually—and I need to figure out how to fix them…" He threw Taichi an inquisitive look.

"Uh, it's not a problem for me if you stay."

The blond's eyes crinkled at the corners as his smile widened. "Thanks."

The twenty minute walk to Taichi's apartment complex was spent in silence. Taichi was trying to piece all the events of the past half an hour together. Was the blond serious about having fallen from Heaven? Or was it just a pickup line? (It had worked). But he had sounded so genuinely concerned…

Taichi glanced at the blond. The other man was inspecting his surroundings, inquisitive eyes flitting from one billboard to another.

With a definitive nod to himself, Taichi decided he was a foreigner. Maybe he had been drunk and was confused. Another glance at the blond. Okay, so maybe his clothes didn't give any indication that he had spent last night—and all of today—drinking. Taichi frowned.

"Um." Came the stranger's voice again, shy and quiet. "I'm Yamato, by the way. I don't think I caught your name…"

"Oh, right, Taichi. Taichi Yagami."

Same Taichi Yagami that had stupidly walked past his apartment complex. He mumbled something incomprehensible, avoiding the blue eyes, and doubled back.

Upon entering the apartment, Taichi had to instruct Yamato to take off his shoes. Yep, definitely a foreigner.

Taichi pointed out the bathroom door on their immediate left. Then they made their way straight through the short, narrow hallway, and into the main living space. The kitchen and living room were separated by an island countertop. The bedroom was walled off from the living room.

Taichi got them cold drinks and invited Yamato to take a seat on his two-seater couch.

"So, where are you from?" Taichi asked, sipping his drink. He had opted for a chair, not comfortable sharing the couch with the stranger.

Yamato blinked a few times, caressing his glass. "Uh, Heaven?"

The phone rang, interrupting Taichi's reply. He excused himself, got up, placed his drink on the coffee table, and walked over to answer the mobile in his briefcase.

"Hi mum."

"Hi Taichi." A younger voice replied.

"Oh, Hikari. Why are you calling from mum's phone?"

"My battery's dead. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I got the job, so I'll be moving to Africa next month." Blunt and to-the-point; it was the best approach with dropping a bomb this big on Taichi, and Hikari knew.

"Oh." Taichi stood still, trying to process the information. His little sister was moving abroad, to another country. A dangerous country.

"Taichi?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"I'll call you later, okay? After you've had time to process this." She hung up.

Taichi stood still, holding his phone at his side, not knowing what to think.

Hikari had started working for a non-profit organisation right after graduation. She would be going to Africa—she hadn't even said which country—to teach children to read. Admirable, but Africa could be dangerous, especially to someone as fragile and prone to illnesses as Hikari… Was Taichi exaggerating Hikari's fragility? Maybe, but he was also worried about his sister contracting some deadly disease. Wasn't Ebola a thing over there?

"Taichi?"

Said brunet turned around to face Yamato, whom had wandered into the hallway.

"Is everything alright?"

Taichi looked at the phone in his hand again, tossing it onto the small table on his left. He forced a smile onto his face.

"Yeah, it's just a little family thing..."

"Oh." Yamato looked genuinely interested. "It must be a nice feeling to care so much about someone. About family."

Taichi was taken aback by the point of view. Yeah, it was nice to have family and other loved ones, but this situation wasn't what he'd call 'nice.'

Whilst Taichi was contemplating this, Yamato took a look around the small entrance hallway. It was bare except for the small table that housed a set of keys and the phone Taichi had just thrown on it. There were no pictures on the walls.

Shaking his head, Taichi smiled more genuinely at his guest. "Should we go back to the living room? There are a few more things I want to ask you…"

Yamato nodded, letting Taichi pass him and lead the way to the other room again. Both drinks were on the coffee table, sweating lightly.

"We're not in France, are we?" Yamato asked, hesitantly, re-taking his seat on the couch.

Again, Taichi was baffled by what came out of the blond's mouth.

"France? Why would we be in France?"

Yamato let out a sigh, casting his gaze outside the glass-windowed doors that led to a small balcony.

"That's where I was supposed to go. I just received a message from the Travel Agency that I really screwed up, and they've fixed things on the French end, but they can't help me here. Where are we?" The question was more of an afterthought, it seemed.

"Let me get this straight:" Taichi shifted on his chair, elbows leaning on his knees. "You're an Angel from Heaven, you were supposed to go to France, but you ended up in Japan, landing on your ass?"

"Yes."

Taichi dropped his head, covering his face with his hands.

"God help me."

Yamato shifted uncomfortably, frowning. "Why would he do that?"

Taichi looked at Yamato from between his fingers. "There actually is a God?"

Yamato shrugged. "Yeah, of course there is. Why?"

"Why doesn't he answer people's prayers, then?"

The blond stared, blinking for a few seconds, before he let out a burst of laughter. "Oh, wow. Is that what Humans think? That God is supposed to answer your prayers?"

"Um, yes?"

"Really?" Yamato actually looked genuinely interested now. "What kinds of prayers?"

Taichi shifted in his seat, not wanting to look at the blond. "Well, I guess help with everyday things and magical healing of the severely sick. Sending you Angels down to Earth to protect us from bad things. Or something. I'm not too sure, actually, since we don't really believe in God in Japan. But that's what I know of the western belief system."

A fine blond eyebrow rose. "You think we protect you?" Then his eyes widened. "You're not expecting me to protect you, are you? Because—to be honest—I have no idea what I should be protecting you from, or how. I've never been to Earth before."

As the talk progressed, Taichi was taking more interest in his guest, shifting closer to the edge of his seat. "What is your job or mission, then? Why are you here?"

"Well, from what we've learned at university, we have very similar societies. Ours is just in a different dimension." He shrugged, reaching for his previously-untouched drink. He took a sip before continuing. "I'm on Earth because I wanted to come."

Waving his hand frantically, Taichi moved to sit on the couch, next to Yamato. "Wait, wait, wait. Back up. What do you mean 'society' and 'different dimension?'"

Yamato scooted a bit closer to his armrest, away from Taichi. "You never took courses on Angel Cultural Studies? Or whatever the equivalent here is."

"Um…"

"You didn't? Oh, well, I know plenty of Angels that also didn't want to take any Human Cultural courses; it's fine and I'm not saying it's a bad thing." He paused, chewing on his bottom lip lightly. "But haven't any of your friends corrected your beliefs about us?"

"Uh…" Taichi grabbed his drink, chugging half of it down. He took his time setting the glass back on the table, eyes moving to his knees. "We don't have anything like that at school or university…" He risked a glance from under his fringe. "Actually, a lot people in the world don't even believe in Angels…"

Yamato's face fell and Taichi felt his gut wrench.

"Oh."

Taichi shifted, feeling sweat starting to trickle down his neck. He should really change out of his suit. For now, he just loosened his tie.

"I mean, I knew, but…" Yamato continued, rubbing at his arm again. "I guess it's just kind of a shock, considering how much of my life I've dedicated to learning about Humans and how much I wanted to come here. Wanted to be part of your society."

Taichi's eyes snapped to Yamato, though the blond was looking off to the side, missing it.

"You keep saying that you wanted to come here." Yamato's eyes finally met his. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Oh, well, I majored in Human Culture and just graduated. We have a choice of becoming teachers by going into further study, or coming to Earth to mingle with you lot and starting lives here."

"But why? Isn't Heaven like paradise? Why would you want to come here?"

Yamato cleared his throat—though it sounded more like he was covering up a chuckle. "I wanted to get a fresh start. Away from my family and m—anyway," He cleared his throat again, for real this time. "I wanted to come here and maybe make some friends and find a job and settle down. Mingle with Humans. Have a life here."

Yamato sounded so forlorn that Taichi smiled gently and reached out a hand to grab Yamato's.

"That can all be done. In fact, you've already made a friend, right?"

Blue eyes stared, hopeful. "Really? We can be friends?"

"Yeah." Taichi pulled his hand away, nodding enthusiastically. "I think we're well on our way to becoming great friends!"

Yamato smiled, but it was fleeting. "I don't know how to go about getting a job here, though. I had paperwork for France, but since I messed up…"

"Well find you work!" Taichi cheered, then he frowned. "What's the deal with this France thing?'"

Yamato averted his eyes. "Oh, I was supposed to be sent to France to settle down. The Travel Agency takes care of paperwork and such, so that we can start new lives, pretending we've been on Earth all our lives. They provide all the housing and CVs and another Angel as a contact person."

"Do you have another Angel to contact here?"

Yamato shrugged. "I don't know; we're not really supposed to expose our identity. The Angel I was supposed to be contacting looked like you, so I thought it was you. But since we're not in France…"

Sensing that Yamato didn't want to discuss the matter further, Taichi got up from the couch, stretching his arms above his head.

"I'm starving. What would you like for dinner? Mind you, I'm not a good cook, so I usually just eat simple or ready meals." He looked towards his fridge, cringing. "Though I don't think I have that much food… Maybe we should just have a snack and then go shopping. What do you say?" Taichi asked, smiling down at the blond.

Yamato returned the smile. "Shopping sounds fun. And don't worry about cooking; I'm a pretty decent cook, so I can take care of that, whilst I'm imposing on you like this. And I can also clean."

"You can cook?" Taichi looked intrigued, then waved a hand nonchalantly at Yamato. "And it's not imposing, since I invited you." Taichi walked to the fridge, opening the door. "Let's see what we can find."

"Oh, I don't need anything right now. Please just eat and I'll wait."

Taichi threw a frown over his shoulder. "Are you sure? Because it's really no problem."

"I'm sure."

"Alright, then."

-o-

Half an hour later, the pair was walking through the doors of a local supermarket. Taichi grabbed a trolley, saying that they should put Yamato's cooking skill to good use and buy lots of fresh ingredients.

"Hey, Yamato." Taichi realised that it was the first time he'd used the Angel's name. He liked it. "If you were supposed to go to France, how is it that you can speak and read Japanese? Put that down, it doesn't taste good."

"Oh," Yamato answered, putting down the horseradish he had been inspecting. "Angels speak a universal language. We start losing the ability to speak other languages after a few weeks."

"I see. Meat is this way." Taichi pushed off to the right.

Yamato spent most of the shopping trip exploring the different foods on offer, commenting about how they differed from those in Heaven.

"Everything here looks just like in the textbooks!"

Taichi chuckled at the blond's childishness, though he was careful of what he let Yamato say. Some of the other patrons were giving them weird looks.

"I'm glad you're enjoying your first visit to Japan." Taichi said, unnecessarily loudly.

Yamato gave him a confused look, but the other patrons smiled at the pair. One woman even stopped to compliment Yamato on his Japanese fluency.

"Sorry." Taichi muttered, sticking himself close to Yamato's side as they went through packets of meat. "But we don't have a lot of Angels visiting…"

"Oh, right!" Yamato put a hand to his forehead. "First I miss France, landing on my ass, talk to the wrong guy, revealing I'm an Angel, and now this. I'm turning into such a klutz."

Taichi laughed, slapping a hand onto Yamato's shoulder. "That makes for a nice change; usually it's me that's the klutz." He placed a few packets of meat into the trolley, pushing towards the checkout. Yamato tried to contain his excitement at seeing the checkout process he had learned about in textbooks played out in front of him. Right before his eyes.

The pair shared the groceries between themselves and started making their way home.

"So, can I ask more about God?"

"Sure." Yamato shrugged.

"Who exactly is he, then, if he doesn't listen to Humans' prayers?"

"He's like our Prime Minister, or President, or King, or Queen, or whatever main country person you have here."

Taichi stopped, staring with his mouth agape. He really needed to stop standing on the streets, looking like an idiot.

"But he's been the same person since the beginning of time, right? Wait, how old are you? In human years."

Yamato gave Taichi an amused look, jerking his head to get Taichi moving again. "No, we elect a new God every six years. The same one can serve only three terms in a row. I'm 29 in Angel and Human years. Our life spans are about the same as Humans' if we choose to join you on Earth. If we stay in Heaven, then we can live to be about twice what Humans can."

Taichi entered the code to his apartment complex and held the door for Yamato to pass. Since they had groceries weighing in their hands, they boarded the lift, taking it up to the fourth floor.

"But Yamato…" Taichi led the way to the kitchen, starting to unpack his bags, Yamato following suit. "Why would you want to come to Earth if your lifespan will shorten? And what about your wings? You lost them, right?"

"Wings?" Yamato stopped trying to figure out where to put the canned goods. "What wings?"

"You mean Angels don't have wings?!" Taichi slammed his hands on the table, staring wide-eyed at Yamato. He should really be getting used to his beliefs about Angels being wrong by now.

The blond edged away slightly, trying to contain his chuckles. "No, we don't have wings." Then he leaned forward, tilting slightly to the left, asking: "Is this really what Humans think of us?"

"Wait." Taichi rolled his eyes, dashing to his room. He returned a minute later. "I just turned on my computer. I'll show you pictures of how we imagine Angels."

They finished putting all the items away, Taichi showing Yamato where everything was in his—now their—kitchen. Then they made their way to Taichi's room—which, Taichi realised, he had to start calling their room.

"Uh, you're okay sharing a bed, right? I don't exactly have a spare and the couch is too small…"

Yamato cast a quick glance at the large double bed. Then his eyes returned to Taichi, whom had taken a seat at the computer.

"It's fine. Your bed is big enough for two. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Nah," Taichi waved the apology aside. "It's not a problem at all. I actually really enjoy learning more about Angels and you." He grinned at Yamato, who returned the grin.

"So these pictures?"

"Right." Taichi signed in and double-clicked the browser open. "Here."

On screen was a picture of a stereotypical Angel: beautiful young maiden in a white robe, with large, white wings.

Yamato moved closer to the screen, eyeing the picture for a second. Then he burst out laughing.

"Oh, man." He wiped away a stray tear. "Sorry to disappoint you." He looked at the picture again, giggling. "I'm really sorry if that's what you were expecting."

"To be fair, I wasn't expecting an Angel at all. So it wasn't really a disappointment." Taichi, too took another look at the picture, then at Yamato. "Besides, I think I prefer you. And, like, the fact that Angels and Heaven are nothing like what I've thought. It's more interesting this way."

Yamato pulled away, a smile on his face. "I'm glad. Shall I get started on dinner?"

"Oh, yeah, please!"

Nodding, Yamato made his way out of the room, leaving Taichi to shut his computer down. The blond made his way to the kitchen, but stopped, biting his lower lip.

"What do you want for dinner?" Yamato asked, turning to Taichi, who had just entered the kitchen.

"Um," Taichi walked over to the fridge, inspecting the meats they had bought. "We could have pork tonight. Haven't had that in a while." He pulled said packet of meat out, frowning as he walked to the chopping board, placing the meat down. "You know how to cook Human food, right?"

Yamato chuckled, looking around in search of something. "Yeah, we have vegetables and meat and rice in Heaven. Our vegetables and animals just look slightly different and are called different things. Do you have an apron I could use?"

"Apron? No, I don't use one."

"Oh." Yamato looked down at his white shirt, frowning, but shrugged, pulling out the chopping board and knife.

"I just realised:" Taichi noted, watching Yamato pull out the accompanying vegetables. "You don't have a change of clothes."

Vegetables in hand, Yamato walked back to the kitchen counter, where he had left his chopping board. Taichi moved to stand further back, by the island countertop. Yamato's sleeves were already rolled up, and since there was no apron to don, he got started.

"I can lend you some, but we should go buy you new ones tomorrow. I won't have to go to work, so I can take you out shopping."

Yamato's hands stumbled with the carrots he was julienning. "That's alright; I don't want to impose so much. I would have had clothes, but they went to France." He frowned at the cupboard in front of his face. "Makes me wonder what they did with the house and my things… Anyway, I should really start looking for work."

"Nah," Taichi waved a hand, brushing off Yamato's worries. "You can start looking for work when I go back to my job on Monday. For now, I'll look after you and buy you anything you need."

Yamato blushed, moving onto the peppers. "That's very kind of you. I'll pay you b—"

"There's really no need." Taichi stepped up behind Yamato, looking over the blond's shoulder. "You promised to cook and clean, so that's enough." He patted Yamato on the shoulder before moving to sit on the other side of the island on a stool.

The redness didn't fade from Yamato's face until dinner was over and he started on washing the dishes.