Angel's Grace

By ElveNDestiNy

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and no copyright infringement is intended.

Three: Sent from Above

Something the heart must have to cherish,
Must love and joy and sorrow learn;
Something with passion clasp, or perish
And in itself to ashes burn.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I first appeared in his study, or at least what I assumed to be his study. It had a bed, so it could have easily been his bedroom. Although the glowing red numbers on his clock proclaimed it to be midnight, he was busily typing away on his computer, eyes intently focused on the glowing screen. It took me a minute to find my balance and I was thankful he hadn't noticed me right away, though it wasn't like the little bit extra time I had to prepare myself was going to help much with this.

"Hello, Kaiba." Lame, I know. But there wasn't anything else I could say and the situation was bad enough without meaningless provocation from me.

I watched as he twisted around with a curse and enough shock that I knew my arrival had been soundless. Even if he had been looking directly at me when I had arrived, I probably would have simply appeared as if out of thin air. It was almost amusing to see his reaction, but then I braced myself for a long and difficult conversation.

"What the hell? Amelda?" His blue eyes blazed. I could actually feel his alarm, rather than just see it in his expression. Even though I had been told that it was just one of the many effects of the bond, I was unprepared for it. With a sudden surge of panic, I checked to make sure that my side was completely shut down. The last thing I wanted was him to feel everything I was feeling.

When I had managed to get things under control, I advanced forward without wasting any time. Having given up on getting a response from me, Kaiba had been about to rise from his chair, but my movements made him sit back down. I stood right in front of him, nearly close enough that his knees would be touching mine.

I took a breath and decided to go for the blunt truth. "Kaiba, I know you're going to think this is crazy, but just listen, okay? I'm an angel now. As in, I've somehow become own personal angel."

I studied his expression and knew that this would be far from simple. I probably would have reacted the same way if he'd shown up in my bedroom at midnight and proclaimed himself to be an angel.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed, raising his hands as if to shove me away. Instead, I saw his eyes flicker to the door. It was locked, of course, since I hadn't entered that way. "What are you doing here? How did you get past my security?"

He was ever practical, just as I might have expected. "Relax, Kaiba. Nothing's been compromised. I came from an entirely different place." I laughed, but not very happily. "I don't know if you've ever thought heaven before, Kaiba, but I guess it doesn't matter. You don't need to believe in anything in order to have proof that angels exist. After all, I'm right in front of you."

Kaiba looked torn between physically engaging me and continuing the conversation. Thankfully, he chose the latter for now. "Have you completely lost it, Amelda? What are you talking about?" He was starting to look less alarmed and more confused. I wasn't sure whether I could count it as an improvement.

"I'm perfectly sane, Kaiba. Next time, pay closer attention, will you? I just finished telling you I'm your guardian angel."

He shook his head, frowning. "I saw you just last night and if you think you're anything other than human, Amelda, we really have a problem. What is this really about?" He grabbed my gloved wrist and squeezed it hard.

"Ow! Let go," I hissed at him between clenched teeth. "I'm not human anymore, that's all you need to know." I could have elaborated and it might have helped, but I felt strangely reluctant to talk about my death.

"You certainly feel human, Amelda. Or do angels feel pain?" His fingers tightened even more. "I'm not that gullible, Amelda. Tell me how you got in and what this is all about. Is it another one of your sick revenge schemes?"

"I. Was. Sent. From Above." In three days of instruction, no one had thought told me that I could still very much feel pain. Kaiba was all but crushing my wrist bones, damn him, and I couldn't help but reflect that this was exactly why this whole bonding thing was ridiculous. At least I had picked up a bit of useful information. Even if three days had passed for me, Kaiba had said that he had seen me yesterday night.

"If you've done anything to harm Mokuba—" he warned, switching tracks. Clearly, he just wasn't getting the point.

"Don't be an idiot. Let me go. I can't even leave if I wanted to." I glared at him and he released me; another moment and I probably would have made a good attempt to give him a black eye.

I could see him thinking and could feel that he was at least starting to calm down a little. We would be pretty evenly matched in a fight and if the door was locked, Kaiba's security probably couldn't make it inside this room anyway. Clearly, Kaiba opted to try to talk reason into me. The problem was, there was nothing reasonable about this. "Okay, Amelda. Say I'm willing to go along with this and you're really an angel. Then answer this: why would you be sent to you to me? I seem to recall that you wanted me dead."

"If only you were, Kaiba," I snarled, losing my patience. He was asking the same questions that I wanted to ask, and hearing them come from him was just angering me. How had I ended up this way? I was an angel—a guardian angel, to be specific—and bonded to Seto Kaiba. For eternity. Even my nightmares hadn't been so creative. The only thing that kept me from losing it right there was that Ariel had implied that the bond wasn't really eternal, just until some unspecified parameters were fulfilled. She had been deliberately vague, but at least it gave me some hope.

The way I understood it, guardian angels were given specific tasks. So the faster I fulfilled whatever task they had given me, the sooner I would stop being tied to him. I had gathered that at least one of the conditions had something to do with learning 'forgiveness.' Personally, it sounded like some twisted version of one of those stories about moral lessons. And that was just the first, most obvious condition.

"I'm an angel," I repeated to him. "You want proof?"

Kaiba was hidden by darkness; he'd turned around so that his back was to the softly glowing computer. I was absurdly thankful that I wouldn't have to see his face. The problem was, I could still hear his voice, now husky and low with anger. "Yeah, I do, Amelda. I'd like to see what you can come up with."

At last, something I could work with. It might have made things easier if I'd approached this whole confrontation differently, but knowing Kaiba, he would probably think he was hallucinating and end up reacting in a way that would be painful for one or both of us. "As you wish, Kaiba."

I concentrated for a moment but I hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, and Kaiba's skeptical glare didn't help. To grow—or to use formal terminology, to substantiate—wings, I needed to believe in myself as an angel. I'd spent a lot of time trying to deny that very fact and resisting that anything at all had changed for me.

Evidently the outlines of my wings were becoming visible at least, because Kaiba's eyes suddenly widened and an almost comical look of angry disbelief appeared on his face. I turned my head around to look at the ghostly wings rising from my shoulder blades and above my head. Seeing really does help bring about believing, because they solidified instantly after that, all glossy feathers and pure white.

"Those things have got to be fake!" If I wasn't already annoyed with him, I might have found the situation amusing. Being an angel had certainly changed me somehow, because I was far calmer than he was.

"Please, Kaiba, it's getting a little old now, don't you think?"

He stalked up to me and before I realized what he was doing, he ran his hands lightly over my wings. I flinched away before I could help myself. His hands on my wings felt like a caress, a startlingly intimate one. I never imagined that it would feel like that. It was subtle, like lips brushing gently across bared skin—definitely not something I wanted my adversary to be doing to me. Except Kaiba wasn't exactly an adversary, and I was having a hard time pretending that he was one when he was making me react this way.

Instinctively my wings came forward and wrapped slightly around my body, forming a protective semi-shield around me. The motion knocked him a few steps back and I inwardly smiled, enjoying his consternation at the strength of that blow.

But whatever little pleasure I derived from a discomfited Kaiba vanished as he leaned closer, and before I could stop him, placed his hand around the back of my neck. Then his hand was slipping lower, below the open neck of my shirt. I was too shocked to do anything but freeze at the intrusion. Then he touched the place between my shoulder blades where heaven and humanity merged, where my wings began.

It felt better than anything else had ever felt in my life and my eyes closed of their own accord. I was helpless as an aching sensation rushed through my veins in the place of blood, flooding my body with its intensity. A low moan slipped out of my throat, startling him and bringing me straight back to panicked reality. I jerked away, taking two dizzying steps back, and felt heat flush my face.

"What are you doing?" I should have sounded accusing. Instead, even to my own ears, I sounded breathy and longing.

Kaiba looked at me with an unreadable expression and a half smile on his lips. He must have not gotten the point because he reached out again. I stared at temptation for a few horrifying moments before I slapped his hand away, amazed to see that I had much faster reflexes than a human. Judging by the wince of pain, I was probably a lot stronger, too.

"Don't touch me, Kaiba," I said as coldly as I could manage, but the burning across my cheekbones told me that I was still flushed with embarrassment. I couldn't believe that I had reacted like that, and to him.

He looked at me curiously and I silently cursed him for being so inscrutable. The only think I could tell was that he looked as if he were about to ask me some questions, questions I was entirely ill-prepared to answer. Something in my face must have appealed to whatever pity a person like Kaiba might have, because he didn't. Kaiba probably had ulterior motives, but the important thing was, he willingly let the matter drop.

"Amelda, if you really are my so-called 'angel,' then quit calling me Kaiba and address me by my name," he said smoothly. I could feel that he was composed and apparently not too fazed by this new development in his life. Beneath that feeling was a lurking bone-deep fatigue that probably had a lot to do with his calm. "Though I assure you, as soon as I can I'm going to send you back to wherever you came from."

"Back Above?" I almost laughed, relieved to be back to our usual antagonistic relationship. "Yeah, well, I don't want to be here either, so if you have any bright ideas, speak up."

He cocked his head slightly, eyes still taking in my wings. "What if you went your way, I went mine, and we'll pretend we never met."

"Can't," I said shortly. If it were so simple, I would have never shown up in his bedroom in the first place. Did he think I was an idiot? For some reason I also found it insulting that he wanted to get rid of me just like that. It was true that I couldn't wait to get rid of him, but to know the feeling was reciprocated pricked my pride. "It's forbidden for me to leave you."

"Who exactly can forbid something like that?"

"It doesn't matter. I understand it only slightly better than you do. But there are rules, and one of them is that we can't be apart."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You've got to be kidding me. So, essentially, you're telling me that we're stuck with each other?"

"Yeah, until either of us can figure out something better." I didn't sound very hopeful about the prospect, because there wasn't any hope. But if it would make Kaiba slightly more amenable, I was willing to let him believe in it. I wasn't about to tell him extra details, like the fact that since we were bonded, I was able to sense some of his feelings. It was only when he was unguarded though, and he was guarded almost all of the time. I would probably only feel it acutely if he were in danger or pain.

The thought of Kaiba in pain was peculiarly disturbing, and that in itself was worrisome. Was that what was going to happen to me? Would the bond force me to protect him? Even now, thinking about him made me feel on edge, and I knew I couldn't do it.

And…when he had touched my wings… I shivered, and then shoved the whole incident as far back in my mind as I could. I felt defeated. Things had changed so much and so abruptly.

"I really don't know much more than you do," I said softly to Kaiba.

He studied me for a moment and I braced myself for the next barrage of questions. Instead, he reached out as if to touch my wings again. I flinched back and he let his hand drop harmlessly to his lap.

"They're real. You've confirmed that, haven't you? I'm real, Kaiba. Your guardian angel."

I wasn't expecting his agreement, but he gave a short nod. "Well, I suppose you need to sleep?"

"What?" The sudden change of topic had me thrown off track. His exhaustion was seeping over to me and I was finding it difficult to concentrate. I wondered how he must be feeling if I was only catching an echo of it.

"Even angels sleep, don't they?"

"I have no idea." I entertained the fantasy of telling him that I had no idea because I had never been an angel before. In fact, I had only died three days ago and I didn't have the faintest idea of what I was doing here, with him, as his angel.

I opened my mouth to tell him just that, but yawned involuntarily and almost smiled when Kaiba turned his famous death glare on me. He obviously though I was yawning at him. I let myself actually look at him and finally noticed what he was wearing—or rather, not wearing. No trench coat in sight. How was it even possible?

Since I had backed off, Kaiba could now stand up and did so. "I'll find you a spare room then. In case you haven't noticed, it's in the middle of the night."

I suspected that he was only being so accommodating because he himself was tired and not really thinking too clearly. I could see the dark circles beneath his eyes and his skin, while always pale, had a pallor to it that told me he'd been up a few too many nights ensuring his business ran smoothly. If Kaiba had been in his right mind, I had no doubts that he would have spent another two hours arguing with me before finally calling in security and throwing me out.

As if the thought of security had let me tap into his thoughts, I suddenly sensed what he was thinking. It was a second blow to my pride. He believed that he could handle me himself even if it turned out that I had some kind of scheme to get to him or Mokuba.

"Don't underestimate me," I said to him in a semi-unfriendly tone, as he guided me to his door. We must have made more noise that I realized, because when we stepped outside, there was a kid was standing in the hallway, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Amelda? Nii-sama, what's he doing here?"

"…I'll explain later." I could almost hear the disgust in Kaiba's voice and despite being suddenly so tired, I was reminded that normally, we hated each other. Back to square one.

I really couldn't resist. "Actually, I'm his angel. Guardian angel, I mean."

Mokuba looked at me and then yawned sleepily. Well, if that wasn't impressive, kids these days must be insane. An angel—a person who had formerly tried to kill him—dropped into his beloved older brother's room, and he just yawned?

"I'm glad he has an angel." He gave me a sleepy smile and I had to admit that he was cute, bordering on adorable. Apparently he was either sleepy enough or young enough to not be concerned by the fact that a real, live angel had turned up. "Is he staying with us then?"

The expression in Kaiba's eyes had softened considerably and I took it all in with fascination. He reached out to ruffle his brother's hair, looking almost as if he would smile. "For now. Go back to sleep, Mokuba. I'll talk to you in the morning and explain everything."

The kid gave me one more look, this time staring at the gigantic white wings behind me. "Nii-sama likes you," he informed me. "Even after that duel."

I tried very hard not to react in any way. Kaiba gave me an amused glance as his brother left, but thankfully made no comment. If I hadn't known better, I would have said that he was a little embarrassed too. He led me to another bedroom and flicked on the lights; it was plain but tastefully decorated. Elegance and style, the usual for Kaiba.

"We'll talk more in the morning," he said without much emotion.

I nodded and closing the door behind me. But to my embarrassment, I had forgotten about my wings—they were still solid, but even solid they felt weightless. My right wing got caught outside the doorframe and I nearly slammed the door on it because I had misjudged the distance.

Kaiba extended an arm to stop the door just in time and it swung open again. I drew my wings in tight around my body, surprised that they could fold rather neatly against my back, and whirled around, realizing what had happened. Before I could say anything, he had closed the door for me.

But I still could remember the expression in those blue eyes and I could have sworn I heard his faint laughter as he walked all the way to his own room.

o o o

Morning was a dismal affair—that is, for me, at least. Kaiba probably thought I provided more entertainment than all the rest of his company goons put together. He woke me at five in the morning, evidently much more awake and argumentative now that he had caught a few hours of sleep, and spent another hour poking and prodding at my wings. The experience was nowhere near enjoyable. I suspected that he finally left me alone only because he had to go have a talk with Mokuba.

If the younger Kaiba brother was as hard to convince as the elder now that it was morning, I could only guess that it would take another hour before I saw the two of them again. Not to mention that it had been humiliating to have to borrow clothes from him, although at the very least, I still had my own trench coat.

The room Kaiba provided me with had a mirror. I looked at myself and turned away, too many emotions filling me for me to examine them too closely. I looked exactly the same as I had ever done, except that now I had those bulky wings. I couldn't even vanish them unless I concentrated all the time, and that was impossible. Hopefully my control would get better with time, but who knew how long that would take? Besides, even vanished, the wings were still there—just very faint, insubstantial outlines that people wouldn't notice unless they knew what they were looking for.

I was halfway down the stairs when Kaiba passed me and the odd look on his face stopped me. I hated it when people gawked at me, even though Valon often pointed out that in that case, I shouldn't wear such conspicuous clothes. Or have become the lead singer of an increasingly popular band. "What, Kaiba?"

"Nothing," he replied absently, not even responding to my irritated tone.

"What the hell are you playing at?" I'd thought that he'd make yet another snide comment about the situation we were in and promised myself that this time he'd pay for it.

"You're wearing my shirt."

"Yeah, well—" I had opened my mouth to retort before I realized what he had said. Hmm. I never knew Kaiba liked to state the obvious. "In case you forgot, you loaned it to me since I didn't have anything to wear. Approximately half an hour ago. Do you have a memory problem, Kaiba?"

I fought not to do anything to increase the smirk I was sure was on Kaiba's face. We continued down the stairs, thankfully without any other commentary, and met Mokuba on the first floor.

It wasn't even breakfast yet and already life with Kaiba was just as miserable as I'd known it would be. I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do as his angel and worst of all, Kaiba seemed to enjoy the prospect of having his rival around for him to torture.

I tried to make my wings disappear but they stubbornly remained exactly as they were. What a welcome to my new life as a guardian angel.

o o o

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