It pained her, seeing him.

 

When he had first joined, she had been overjoyed. She had always loved solving a good problem, and he was a person that was problem incarnate. Now, however, she wondered if she had simply set herself up for failure.

 

Boa wanted to pull him close, hear his heart beating under her ear, whisper the words she so wanted to gift to him.

 

But tradition dictated otherwise.

 

Sometimes, when he came to her in all of his resplendent glory, carrying another child with another flower to sing, she felt like everything was alright. As a new voice joined her choir, she would trick herself into believing that he was set on the road to healing. However, when she looked into his eyes and saw the small, childish soul entreating her to say her words (“Yunho, you’ve done well”), she would once again be harshly reminded of her failures, or, rather, her only failure--him.

 

--

The next day, another case arrived on her stack of cases. The child was almost not a child anymore and had been growing on the border of adulthood. So similar. The little sweeting was male, tall, dark, and brooding. He could be Yunho’s twin. The kid, Mark, even had highly similar life details.

 

Mark had worked himself to the edge of his abilities, perhaps further. Dark eye circles were evidently a constant fixture upon his face. Boa could still remember the smudges of shadow she had first seen upon Yunho. She had thought they were makeup.

 

The new case’s fingers were slender, callused, and long. His wrists were defined, edged. Boa smiled at the thought of a duet partner for Yunho. A single piano could always be made more lively with one more pair of hands.

 

Her new flower was edging on frail, a slight tremble to his limbs. He was the result of countless, building, sleepless nights. After a while, it had simply turned into a bone-deep fatigue. Thankfully, Yunho’s body had benefited greatly from the rejuvenating abilities he now possessed.

 

They were so incredibly similar, yet the one striking parallel between the two that caused both fear and hope to course through Boa was their eyes. Eyes beseeching approval, a compliment, and explanation of a compliment, love, acceptance, pride. Eyes that constantly asked everyone one question. Am I good enough?

 

--

She tapped her index finger on her hip bone, reassuring herself with the solid feel of a hard, angular edge to tap against. Boa had not felt this agitated since she had sent Yunho on his first mission. She wondered how he would feel. Would he finally realize? Would he finally see? Would he finally remember?

 

The clock ticked forward another minute; the hourglass poured out one minute more, one minute less remaining. What remained for her was fourteen minutes, 840 seconds, 2604 taps. In that much time, she would know whether her most recent and best plan was successful. If it was not, she had decided to rest her case. After all, it would not be too bad if Yunho never remembered. There was a reason he had forgotten.

 

She was alerted of their presence entering the Gates of Heaven. Well, at least he had completed his job. Perhaps he had not remembered? That could be why his behavior was absolutely normal. Enter the gates with six minutes left. She was rather hoping that the adherence to routing meant that nothing had changed, physically or mentally, in the past 24 hours. Boa did not particularly want Yunho to remember the details of his past, but that was not her decision.

 

Boa could see them in the distance, slowly climbing each beautifully wrought step towards her position high above them. Two tall, dark figures. One was physically still dressed in his charcoal mortal fittings; the other retained the inherent dark that would never be removed, even while dressed in celestially bright clothing.

 

Did he know?

 

They finally walked up to her, a small, lovely sprig of lily-of-the-valley in Mark’s hand. She noticed that Yunho did not look into her eyes at all--the first break in the pattern.

 

When he finally looked into her eyes at the next flower to angel transformation, he didn’t have a question for her.

 

--

 

a/n:

 

Thank you to all of the judges of the competition "The Sky Is The Limit". It was an amazing experience to write everything and truly rewarding.

 

My cards used were:

 

dbsk yunho x boa

fairytale au ("The Angel" by Hans Christian Andersen http://www.bartleby.com/17/3/16.html)

open ended

character revises their own memories to suit their current situation

supernatural