FrUs

(Angel AU)

He was so beautiful once. An angel with wings of gold that fluttered in the sunlight as he soared high above the Earth he cared so much for. Well I shouldn't say he's not beautiful anymore, to me he's still as angelic as the day we were caught. His golden wings were snapped off as he tumbled to the ground below. As angelic as he is, even my lover would have died if he crashed but, then his 'hero' would have never let him fall.

"Alfred," he whispered coarsely. His blue eyes shined with unshed tears as his blonde hair clung to his face. "Run..."

I chuckled as I held him tighter to my chest feeling for the first time a heartbeat within his chest. It was a strange sensation I had never known before. "No," I answered feeling the hot stings of the cold rain above me. "If we're going to die I guess we should go together."

We didn't die that day, or the one after that but slowly it became clear what they had done. My angel was human. He was a mortal being that continued to age with each passing year and while I wanted to stop it...there was nothing I could do. "Alfred," he said one night with a calm sigh taking my hand into his. "We should have known that nothing lasts forever. Even in our worlds everything must come to an end."

"But," I answered unsure what to say as he rested his lips on mine. "It's not fair..."

It was his turn to chuckle. "Life my dear is not always fair. But, promise me one thing."

I wouldn't, I couldn't. No matter what my angel wanted from me I refused until...today. Today I take a long deep breath as the rain falls mixing with the dirt making fresh mud at my feet. What the man in front of me is saying I don't know, nor do I care. He doesn't know the seventy years that we've spent together, the last ten spent in a lonely hospital room as he clung to life and his memories. Each one slipped away as his body broke down. He never forgot who I was, he couldn't see me but hear me but I know deep down he could still feel me.

In those last hours I pressed his hand to my chest but, it wasn't until those final moments did I see a smile. "Francis..." I say quietly as they lower the casket before turning my eyes upward. "A life for a life...I hope they gave you your wings back..." I give a halfhearted smile as I feel my beating heart break.

"Promise to live a good life when I'm gone..."

"Yeah..." I sigh, "But what's life without the one I love?"

I have at least sixty more years to go and even then I know I won't see him again. He was a beautiful angel and for a brief moment in time, he was mine.