Loving Angels
By: blue lady
"I sit and wait, does an angel contemplate my fate?"
-Robbie Williams, Angels
Chapter One – A Curious Shoppe
"Zach! Hello!"
Zachary snapping out of his trance watched as a hand waved angrily in his face. Looking around the table he noticed that all of his friends were looking at him curiously.
"Um…what?" was Zach's intelligent answer. The hand soon made a loud slap against its owners' forehead, "Zach, your order." the redhead sighed.
"Just a cup of coffee. Black." Zach said, handing the waitress his menu. As the waitress made her way to the kitchens, the redhead immediately fixed her ruby eyes on him.
Zachary sighed, "It's nothing, Liz."
Liz knew he was lying. After being best friends for almost fourteen years, she knew that Zachary Grey was never a spacey person. However, she also knew that if she kept bugging him about it they will probably get into another one of their argument and ruining her little dinner party.
"He will tell me on his own time anyway." Liz concluded, before turning her attention back to her other friends.
Zachary Grey didn't really wanted to be here right now. What he really wanted to do was to go home and well…sulk. It had already been a long day already and now he was stuck here at Liz's favorite restaurant to celebrate her engagement to Gabriel Brien. It wasn't that he wasn't happy for them, after seven long years the idiot had finally gathered enough courage to pop the question (though Zach didn't blame him, asking someone like Elizabeth Harriet Avery to marry you took a lot of guts). As usual, there was the usual Liz-bashing-Gabe fest for making her wait so long, but after that she said yes making Gabe a very happy man.
"Where is Sophie?" Gabe asked looking around for the genteel woman, "She said she would come."
"Oh, Sophie called me earlier. Apparently she still had some stuff to do for work." Felicity answered him.
"Oh." Gabe replied, sounding a bit disappointed. An uncomfortable silence fell upon the rest of the group, as everyone knew of the kindergarten teacher's love for the blonde basketball star. Zach noticed Liz shifting around in her seat uncomfortably – she and Sophie were basically childhood friends and could trace their relationship all the way back when they were both five years old.
Zach begin to daze out as his mind drifted back to what had happened earlier that afternoon.
He had been storming out from his boss' office after another refusal of a possible promotion with the usual "Zachary, you just don't have enough experience…"
"Not enough experience!" Zach grumbled to himself, "I had only been one of Seyruun Tribune's top reporter for FIVE YEARS!"
Zachary had always got his story no matter how impossible and made sure to never miss a deadline. Zachary had his heart set to storm back to his cubicle and spend the rest of day sulking. So it came as a shock when he found Michelle Emer, Advice Columnist and the girl he had been pining away for most of his years at the Seyruun Tribune, sitting there waiting for him.
She turned around to face him, tears brimming her emerald eyes.
"What's the matter, Michelle?" Zach asked, grabbing her gently by the shoulders.
"Chris finally proposed to me!" Michelle answered her face breaking into a smile as she glomped him, "We're engaged!"
Zach wished L-sama could just strike him down now.
Yup, life is cruel… Zach thought glumly to himself as he took another sip of coffee.
WHAM!! A sudden object colliding into his head surprised him so much that he managed to spill coffee all over his white shirt.
"LIZ!"
Liz huffed as she returned the offending object (her purse) back to its former state of hanging off her shoulder.
"Serves you right! Didn't you hear what I was saying? We're leaving!" She said, putting special emphasis on the last two words.
Grumbling to himself, Zach obediently followed his friends out of the restaurant. Yup, Life really sucked but at the least he could finally return home to brood in peace.
Then a feminine squealed was heard, quickly followed by "I never noticed that store before. It must be new! Liz, look isn't that pretty?"
Felicity quickly grabbed Liz by the wrist dragging her across the street to have a closer look. Gabe looked at Zach, shrugged and then followed the girls across the street, "Come on, Zach!" he yelled. Zach just sighed, following them as well.
When Zach and Gabe finally made it across the street, the girls' faces were found plastered to the glass window. Zach looked over their heads to see what they were looking at and saw that the window display was filled with beautiful crystal figurines (AN: think Swarovski) of all shapes and colors. Zach looked at the fancily decorated sign hanging above the window:
centerAntiques & Oddities
We sell antique swords, beautiful crystals, and other mysteriously interesting things!/center
"Come on let's go inside! You too, Zach!" Liz said firmly, grabbing him by the wrist before he could make an excuse to leave.
Upon entrance the group was assaulted by the smell of heavily burning lemongrass incense, causing Liz to squeeze violently. The store was completely decorated with red carpets, purple curtains with golden tassels and shelves made of dark cherry wood. All of this was dimly lit by flamboyantly ornamented oil lamps that seemed to be placed at random.
"Welcome to Antiques & Oddities!" said a plump woman of about forty with green eyes twinkling with unbridled mirth. Zach couldn't help but raise an eyebrow; she was wearing a deep green velvet, Victorian-style dress which clashed terribly with the purple, gypsy-like sash wrapped around her long, fizzy red hair.
"We sell old spellbooks, beautiful swords, mysterious sculptures – well, anything that most stores do not have! If you have anything you want in particular I'll be glad to help!" The woman giggled twinkling.
"Spellbooks!!" Liz exclaimed her eyes twinkling with excitement. Zach recalled that for as long as he could remember, Liz always had a strange obsession with black magic and would always read those books in class instead of actually paying attention.
"This way!" The lady exclaimed leading her to a distant corner.
Well, might as well just look around…Zach thought, slowly making his way to where the swords were displayed and found that Gabe was already there meticulously examining every one.
"Pretty!" Gabe said, pulling one sword from its scabbard, completely enthralled. The sword was beautiful; the handle was elegantly decorated with silver and what appeared to be turquoise stones.
"It's probably all fake." Zach said, picking up a sword with a simple golden handle.
"Everything here is authentic!"
Zach jumped and turned around to see the woman right behind him. Slightly embarrassed, Zach quickly grumbled a response.
"Did you need help? I noticed you're the only one whose not engrossed in something." The woman asked, peering at him curiously.
Zach looked over her and found it to be true. Liz was busily fumbling through spellbooks and Felicity was busy looking at all the maces and pottery on display.
"No, no I'm fine." Zach said, brushing her off.
"There must be something you'll find interesting." The woman pressed on, looking at him in such a way it felt like he was transparent.
"You seemed to be an cultured-individual. Art, perhaps?" The woman asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Look-"
"Paintings? Sculptures?" The woman continued.
"Okay, Yes. I very much enjoy art." Zach finally conceded, deciding just to play along, then maybe she'll leave me alone.
The woman smiled triumphantly, "Follow me please."
Zach was pleasantly surprised by the painting and sculptures she had. He had excepted terrible, unfinished art by some no-talent artist but found the opposite. Each form of art was made with great detail and had an air of obscurity behind them all. Zach found himself particularly drawn to the store's paintings. Each painting had a kind of expression and element Zach had never seen before. He especially liked a set of paintings that hung way in the back of the small corridor that housed them all. They were obviously painted by the same artist, as they were all oil paints and show the same emphasis in color and detail.
"I see you like his paintings the best." The woman commented.
"Yes, what is his name?"
"I don't know."
"Then how do you know he's a he?"
The woman smiled at him mysteriously before rummaging through a corner filled with, what he guessed, paintings by the same painter.
"Then you'll probably enjoy this one." The woman said unwrapping the cloth around it.
To say that Zach enjoyed it was an understatement. It had to be the painter's pride and joy and masterpiece as it completely outshined all the others. The colors used and the details expressed were amazing. The background used was a simple clear, blue sky however the color was dazzling; he never knew such a blue existed. It was also painted in such a way that Zach could almost feel the air rushing around the painting's main focus; a young girl. The girl appeared to be falling from the sky; her glittering blue eyes (gently obscured by long, black lashes) was completely focused on the unknown destination beneath her feet. Her long arms were raised gracefully above her head with her left foot outstretched and her right bent behind her as if preparing to land gently. She was shrouded simply with a gauzy, white material around the appropriate areas, with the excess following lazily above her, mixing with her short midnight locks.
"I'll take it." Zach stated simply.
The woman smiled to herself, as she walked away taking the painting with her to properly wrap it up for it's new home. The woman stared at the painting, once again breaking into a smile, "I knew your time would come and you didn't believe me."
The painting remained silent.
"Don't worry. You'll be able to do it! He already likes you already!"
In the painting, the faintest of pinks seemed to appear on the girl's cheeks causing the woman to laugh,
"I know you'll take good care of him, Ameria."
Author's NoteI know I should be concentrating on Ascend but unfortunately my muse wouldn't let me write anymore of ch. 10 until I wrote this. I'll try to juggle these two. Read and Review please. I hope you'll enjoy it! I decided to make something light-hearted since Ascend is kind of heavy.