Title: Tongues of Men and Angels
Rating: TA for implied?romance.
Summary: Glimpses of grace: the story of one brother and two sisters. Through the grace of God, all things are made new.
Disclaimer: *obligatory insert*
Interlude: Song of Songs
His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars.
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely.
Song of Solomon 5: 15-16
The wind and the dust had layered his skin with dirt. Though he could bathe if he so chose, it often seemed an inconvenience—though the holy fire burning under his skin had a tendency to scald away excess water that might otherwise weigh down his wings, sometimes the dust and grime would collect in rivulets between his feathers before drying there.
Though angels did not generate filth themselves, and lacked the unfortunate tendency to perspire, there were times—like now, out in the dirt and the sand and the sharp hot breeze—when he still required a method to ensure cleanliness.
He was standing out in the hot afternoon sun, with his outer armor shelled away and laid respectfully to one side, the skin of his torso taut and burnished coppery-rose between the fire in the sky and the fire inside him. Angelic prayers rippled over his chest and abdomen in dark rivers and ribbons of holy ink, an intricate covenant carved into his flesh. With a hand-towel Joy had found for him in the latest linen closet and the hose faucet running, he sluiced cold water over his skin, cleaning away the desert-dust.
It was like this that Bethany found him.
"Gabriel," she called, and rounded the corner—and then stepped backward, eyes wide, mouth parted. She turned abruptly, one hand lifted to her face as though to shield her eyes, but she kept glancing at him and then turning away, stammering apologies interspersed with the information she had sought him out to deliver—and nothing she was saying was coherent. He observed her bizarre behavior, trying to discern the source of her perplexing reaction, when it suddenly occurred to him that she found the sight of him…
…gratifying.
It was a strange thought—and oddly, not altogether displeasing. The sight of her blush was strangely endearing to him.
"You desire this physical shell?" Gabriel asked curiously, just to be certain.
Bethany flushed, and he realized that for the first time since he'd woken in the back of the sisters' Ford, she was flustered, uncomfortable, embarrassed.
"Well," she snapped in irritation, "He did make you beautiful." There was a pause while he pondered that, and then she added in a snarkish tone that surprised him anew: "Don't worry. I won't compromise your virtue."
With one swift, dismissive gesture, he waved away her concern—which would have been irrelevant even if it had been genuine—and studied her face instead. He had noted the delicacy of it before, beneath the scar: there was a certain softness to it that was absent in angelic features, a kind of vulnerability around the mouth and eyes that gave humans a look of perpetual fragility, even among the strong. Her eyes seemed like suns to him in that moment, and for a brief second the ragged scar only served to highlight the tenderness of her torn lips, the clarity of her brow.
"You are not unlovely," he offered at last, kindly. He watched, intrigued, as she stared back at him, myriad emotions running rampant across the face in question. Shock, disbelief, righteous indignation—
Then she threw back her head and laughed. "You charmer," she said.
Word Count: 532
Completed: May 5, 2011
A quick little light-hearted interlude for you amidst all this seriousness. :)
I don't remember what inspired this drabble—only that I giggled uncontrollably while writing it.
I wasn't originally sure I would actually include it, but then I thought that it couldn't hurt. After all, though there will be no lemon in this fic (sorry, kiddies!), there were certain interested parties to whom I thought I could, ahem, "throw a bone."
That is: thank you for your wonderful, helpful reviews, Maladicta—this one's for you!
(And anyway, who hasn't occasionally pondered the thought of that, er, divine form?)
Also, the link the rough sketch/excerpt from chapter 32 as a thank you for all my very wonderful reviewers (simply copy & paste it into a browser address bar and remove the spaces):
http :/ fyrefly-nyxa .deviantart .com /# /d3figm5
****Song of Songs is another name for Song of Solomon or Songs, a book of the bible that relays the courtship and marriage of a lover and his beloved. Some say it was written by Solomon for a member of his harem; others say it was written by Solomon about a (possibly real or possibly fictional) girl who worked in the vineyards and a shepherd-boy in love; still others believe it to be a purely symbolic representation of either God and the Jewish people or Christ and the Church. In any case, it's a very sensual book, bordering on erotic, and incredibly beautiful. [c. Songs, Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon]