"I'm scared," I thought, not caring that he could hear.
"Don't be," he replied aloud. We were by ourselves in a room so alone and so apart from humanity that it felt like an extension of our lives. I had had only a small chance to see it, but I could easily recall the overgrown vines that had coated the walls; the flakes of sawdust that could be seen drifting to the floor in the sunlight that streamed through the dusty window. But I didn't care that it was old, to me this place was paradise.
I heard his gown sweep across the old wooden floors as he moved towards me and was immediately jealous. Such a simple thing, movement. I felt trapped beneath this stone, being able to listen but never speak, be touched but never touch, be observed but never see.
What I wouldn't give to look into his eyes, to search his soul and have him search mine in return. I wanted to show him my love for him and all that he is, but I couldn't.
He placed his hands over mine. I could scarcely feel his warmth. I knew what warmth felt like. I knew the sensations of flesh upon flesh but had only felt it in hatred. In murder. I envied humans and their dull vision that could lift this curse but for only a moment. But darkness could not save us. We would forever be playing tag team, our sole connection through our minds.
I could never understand my ancestors; why they laid this curse upon our species. We had become so much more stone than we had ever intended to be. We spent so much effort preserving our lives that we forgot to live. I still remembered the cold before I met him and I never wished to return to that. I wanted to be warm together but it was impossible.
He kissed my forehead and in my mind's eye I smiled but my stone lips did not move. He had never seen me smile. Never seen me weep, though he had heard it often enough. He didn't even know what colour my eyes were. Neither did I, actually.
"You're so beautiful, you know," he said. My skin crawled- well, as much as stone could crawl- with delight. He'd never seen my while not in my stone form and I didn't even know what I looked like, which made what he said even better. Physical appearance meant nothing to us Angels. We all looked the same while stone.
But I knew what he meant. He meant that I was beautiful. Not what I looked like but who I was. And that's what made me even more sure of what we were about to do.
"Okay, my eyes are closed," he said, but he didn't have to tell me. I wasn't stone anymore and it felt so good. I removed my hands from my eyes and looked at him. His eyes were blank but there was a small smile on his lips. His arms were outstretched and he was one his knees.
I smiled and knelt on the ground in front of him, shuffling forward until I was as I close as I could get to him. My skirt gathered around me, just not covered my toes. I kissed his cold stone lips and proceeded to hug him.
Releasing him I held him at arms-length and whispered, "I'm ready."
"Me too," he said in my mind.
I closed my eyes.
We were both stone. I saw him and he saw me. We weren't flesh on flesh but stone on stone. Our stone eyes had no eyelids and there was nothing to stop me from staring at him for eternity.
"Well isn't this an amazing view," he thought.
"Good enough," I agreed, "for eternity."
