Earth angel, earth angel
Please be mine.
My darling dear,
Love you all the time.
--

Earth Angel
Death Cab For Cutie

Earth Angel

She was always so bright, almost painfully so. Even the silver rain that came from the sky paled in comparison to her, the garden girl, the earth angel who he watched from afar, the one he adored forever and evermore.

What was that line of poetry again, the hopelessly romantic one, the one that made all the girls giggle and the boys blush?

She doth teach the torches to burn bright.

And she walks in beauty like the night.

That was her. She was every single poem he knew, every single one he had ever heard from someone else or read somewhere.

All of that in her bright green eyes and pretty pink dress and the long brown braid that flowed down her back.

And he wanted her, wanted her so horribly that he couldn't even face the truth: he was a fool for her, for the earth angel.

But she couldn't be read like a book, or spirited away from the flowers. It wasn't that easy. It would never be that easy.

She was protected with unseen guards, with a vague understanding that all the residents shared. She was an angel child: to be revered, but never touched.

Never, ever, ever touched.

To do so would be desecrating her, the world, everything that goodness ever was.

Nobody ever, ever, ever touched her.

Even her friends kept a distance, an arm's length away. Reaching their hands out, calling for her to join them with her pretty name: Aerith, Aerith, but making sure they never touched her.

That was how it was.

Until one day when he couldn't take much of the madness anymore. Until one day when science stopped distracting him well enough. Until one day when he took her into the shadows with him.

Until one day he gripped her shoulders so very tight and told her not to be afraid and shoved his tongue past those pretty pink lips to swallow her question.

Until one day when he tried to make her his.

Until one day when she ran away not as bright as she once was and she was very afraid, very very afraid of the world.

And until that night came. And it was fitting anyway because the Heartless dark came and they were all doomed to lose their hearts, all except for two of her friends. And, of course, for her.

And she didn't lose her heart, but she never once looked back.

But he never stopped remembering her.

Even now, when he's still clinging to what he has left, his heart still gone and hers still beating, she's still teaching torches to shine bright and walking in beauty like the night. They fight on different sides of a war now and he realizes that he was far too late.

But he still watches from the shadows, and wonders how he could still make her his, help her realize that he needs her to be his.

He needs to be with the earth angel who never really needed to be with him.

---

A/N: So. In case you were wondering? BraigxAerith and eventual XigbarxAerith, both one-sided.

I know. It was Iris' brilliant idea. I love them already.

References in the poems to Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Lord Byron's She Walks In Beauty Like The Night.

I will write more with these two, of course. They're such fun.

So, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review if you're inclined. Constructive criticism makes my day!