Title: Tell-Tale Signs Of Divine Intervention
Genre: Drama? Angst? Supernatural? AngelAU
Pairing(s): KaiSoo
Word Count:
Rating:
Summary: Kyungsoo is a young angel, with wings and a halo that are only eighty years old. When it comes to life and death, he is but a witness to the natural order of it all. But love? Well, he'll find out how weak he is in the face of it.
 

- Divine Intervention -

Heaven is crowded these days. The numbers are not ever exponential, and the celestial realm of Hereafter does not ever necessarily dwindle in capacity, but regardless of such, Kyungsoo thinks that Heaven is crowded these days. Hereafter doesn't feel like home yet.

It could be because he's still young--at a mere eighty-two years an angel; still so attached to life, still so infatuated with the world. He watches people and spends more time as being a guardian, rather than lounging in the paradise of Hereafter, sipping on human daydreams and rolling around with wishes that are all too unrealistic to ever come true.

People, he's come to realize, are endlessly desperate. Humans are so perpetually needy. And that's okay--that's natural; it's life.

And maybe he misses it - or--at least, wants it. Because life is beautiful.

Unfortunately, the only thing he can recall about his own past life, is that he had passed from that form of existence eighty-two years ago. His features are gifted with round, large eyes, dark hair and pouty-plush lips. His stature is small--and he wonders if this is the appearance he'd had from his human life, the one from before, the one he'd had.

It's un-important, essentially.

It doesn't matter now, anyway--and it never will.

Su-ah is dying, she's on the brink of finality, these days. So Kyungsoo leaves the grounds of Hereafter with white flowers in his hair and a graceful descension towards the Earth below him, wind beneath his wings, circlet-crown and bracelets glowing the same bright golden-hue as his halo.

She's Eighty-one today, and in a week she'll be ready - ready to face the almighty crossroad of fate; Angel? Or Reincarnation?

He knows she is not destined for Hell. That's a fact. She's practically already an angel. She'd lived an honest life of decent morality.

And so he smiles when he stops by her bedroom window, easily silencing the outside world and allowing her a peaceful nap.

She deserves to live the rest of her life in ease, he thinks.

~ ~ ~

Sitting in the window of a hospital room now, Kyungsoo is but an invisible figure to the people crowded around Su-ah's recliner bed.

Beeping, wires, cotton-sheets and a television that's set to mute hanging in the top right corner, she is the least scared person occupying the entire room. Maybe it's because she's eighty-one. Perhaps she's ready to finally move on.

They all stand in silent sobs and poorly refrained tears that leave their faces red and hidden behind crumpled pieces of tissue paper. It's easy for Kyungsoo to tell that her family cares for her. This isn't how any of them had wanted Su-ah to see them - with tears wetting their cheeks and choked words ruining the attempted light conversation, because in her words exactly; I want everyone to be happy. Think of this as a celebration of my life--and not me leaving it behind - but it is a case of the inevitable. She's dying, and they don't want her to go.

Kyungsoo waits in the wings, casting no shadow onto the glossy tiled floor. And watching Su-ah smile fondly at her four children, and her children's children, with kind eyebrows and soft eyes that he's learned give away far more than anyone could ever know--because he's been watching over her since she was born, learned all the ways she emotes the hidden emotions--secretly, she's a little nervous.

And Kyungsoo wishes it didn't have to be this way.

But he plays no part in the hand of fate and what is ultimately in store for the lives he watches over and protects from the easily avoidable.

She'd been leaving her own bed for a glass of water, her favorite soap opera was on and commercial breaks usually lasted at least two minutes long. She could have been back in time to see if forbidden lovers were caught red-handed, with the weight of a baby scandal present in the plot and scornful fiances suspicious of possible infidelity from both of the suspected characters. Season finale.

But being of old age, suffering a simple fall isn't one that Su-ah could afford.

She'd tripped over nothing in particular, just a defiance of her own limbs and age playing a part on her mobility. Kyungsoo had looked on in worry, crouching by her side with a calm expression, but a heavy heart. He'd been there since the day she'd just started walking, but a baby in a blue dress and cute pigtails, and now she can walk no longer.

In recognition of this, Kyungsoo realizes this'll be his first turnover. Soon he'll be watching over somebody new.

But thankfully, she was discovered in time to be brought to the hospital, laying in a plush bed and a re-run of the finale she just nearly missed-out on, playing on high volume for her aged ears to hear.

It's a wake-up call. She's okay, but...

But now--now the end is something easily in sight, and the doctors had made this abundantly clear to her visiting family members.

This meeting is an important one, and the doctors entering the room had informed her four children of how much longer she has left to live. And being a bold and brave woman who's lived a fearless kind of life, Su-ah insists on knowing the details. The oldest of her children, her son, tells her personally that there is only about a week or so left.

And without a single tear nor flash of worry, she folds her hands in her lap, asking calmly, So, what do we do?

The funeral event organizer, a woman in formal attire who's learned how to provide relaxed smiles in the face of so much death, calmly leans over toward Su-ah, and places a hand over her own, telling her, We plan ahead. Everyone aside from the doctor and nurse are crying - grandchildren seem to only be in tears because their parents are in tears, not entirely aware of the situation at hand. Why is grandma laying in that bed?

They're too young to realize that they will miss her.

And being of no significance when it comes to finality of fate - just an angel who watches over and defends against simplistic instances of peril, like the time he'd caused Su-ah to lose grip of her trapper-keeper, papers inevitably falling onto the sidewalk and thus her ultimately missing the bus that would crash at an intersection, two people dead and several injured - Kyungsoo is who her parents unknowingly thank in front of a news story on the television. Good heavens, t-that could have been you!

It's the little things in her life, that deem Kyungsoo a thing of luck - when all this time, luck was actually an angel with youthful wings and a sympathetic heart.

Kyungsoo decides to show himself to Su-ah on the last night she is alive, sitting next to her bed in the moonlight and not saying a word--even though her eyes slowly flutter open and look toward him as if he'd intentionally called out to her, stirring her awake.

"Do not worry," Kyungsoo says, quiet and calm and with a very small smile on his face.

And he thinks of giving her a reason, something to assure her to not fear his sudden presence. But Su-ah has always been brave, a free spirit who has always taken adventure by bare hands--saying to him simply, in a faint whisper, "Oh, I am not worried." At this, Kyungsoo's smile is bright and fond. "As an old lady on her deathbed, I don't think that there is anything left to fear."

Meeting Su-ah, truly, finally, is nice. He hums at her response, admiring her entire life and feeling glad that he got to be a distant part of it.

"Are you an angel?" She asks, still bold as ever, never one to wait around for someone to carry on the conversation for her. She'd always asked questions that were on her mind. "You have wings and--is that a halo I see?"

Kyungsoo chuckles softly, nothing but a faintly glowing figure beside her bed and something even more beautiful than the bouquets of flowers sitting on the nightstands that were brought to her by her children. He is a heavenly being.

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. "I am." He places a delicate hand over her limp one, tone soft. "I've been watching over you since the day you were born."

At this she musters up the best groan of embarrassment she can manage. "Oh dear, so you've--" She looks to him, then looks away, chuckling to herself. "--you know all about me and all the things I've done? Oh my... suddenly I feel self-conscious. What you must think of me." Regardless of her mild shame, she is giggling, and Kyungsoo can't help but giggle himself.

"I do not judge, Su-ah." He assures her, and this, she somehow already knows. "I admire you. And I applaud you. You've lived a really great life."

"Ah," Gaze directed back up toward the ceiling, she sighs deep. "I really have, haven't I?" He doesn't respond, just let's her settle in the silence until she's then saying, "And now, I have to leave it all behind."

"I thought you said that your life was something to be celebrated, not sad over for leaving it behind." Kyungsoo remarks, referring to her previous words to her weeping children.

"Yes, I suppose in some sense that is true. But you and I both know, that those are things that one must say to ensure that the ones you love don't suffer more than they have to. I'm sure we both know that assuring others is the last good thing we can do before we are gone."

Kyungsoo finds himself humming to her words again. "Do you fear death?"

"Well, honestly I think we all do. All living things must fear it even just a little bit, no?"

"I don't know." Kyungsoo mutters, still offering a kind smile to her. "I don't recall."

And this time, Su-ah is the one that is humming in response, thinking things over. He knows that she's contemplating asking what she is wondering, saying what's nervously on her mind. One of the most common curiosities of mankind, is, "What's going to happen to me?" She asks, a form of more questions--some that are the same question; where do I go from here? What happens after death? Is there a Heaven and a Hell? Will I be reincarnated? It all means the same thing in the end. What's next?

And steady as the moonlight on her features, Kyungsoo replies; "It is unclear." He doesn't lie to her, he's never been one to fathom the logic behind lying and why humans insist on doing it so much. "I don't play a part, nor can I change what is already one person's true fate. All I can do, is alter how you get there."

He's thankful that he'd gotten to look over a being that was destined to live till the end. Thankful that he hadn't had to watch over someone who was fated to die early on.

He still doesn't understand the ways of life and death and how it is all decided and why a person is called back to the Earth while others may continue to live on, as if there is a systematic purpose to it all. These secrets out-rank him, exist beyond his comprehension and capabilities, in a realm in which he cannot even fathom. This is more than angels and Hereafter, this is by the hand of Death and who he answers to.

"Well," Su-ah doesn't smile as she looks Kyungsoo's way again. "either way, I think that I am ready to face the unknown."

She's always been a brave soul.

Kyungsoo can't help but squeeze her hand gently and stand to give her a light kiss on the forehead.

He tells Su-ah it was nice meeting her, even though he's known her since the day she was brought into this world.

But that's okay, because the fairwell she gives him, is as meaningful as one that she'd give to a person she'd known for just as long.

And when she is asleep, Kyungsoo sitting at her bedside till the very first hint of sunlight over the horizon, Zitao appears from behind him, standing there with that long scythe in hand and a courteous nod to Kyungsoo for his successful endeavor of watching-over.

"I'll take it from here." He says, slowly stepping forward and placing a gentle hand over Su-ah's forehead where Kyungsoo kissed her.

Kyungsoo leaves out of the window from which he'd entered, heart heavy.

Still so attached. Still too young an angel.

~ ~ ~

To Be Continued

A/N:
I'm looking forward to this one guys. Just you wait. I'm excited for Jongin, aren't you? ;D hehe Anyway, I'll reveal the rest of this when it's finished :)