Helpless. So incredibly, pathetically helpless. That was how Jinki felt, trapped beneath six feet of foolishness.  A fool that was Minho. Why else would he, a human, jump in the way of sharp-clawed ravens to protect a supernatural being such as Jinki?

Jinki called for Jonghyun in his mind, all the while trying to push Minho off of him. Minho was stronger than the powerless Jinki and it frustrated the angel to no end that he did not have his abilities back yet. Minho seemed like he was trying to find a way to get them both out of the room, but his efforts were nullified by the constant attacks of the vicious ravens, leaving him unable to do anything but shield Jinki protectively.

“Jonghyun!” Jinki physically voiced when there were still no signs of the other while Minho was being hurt this way. Minho ducked a talon swishing past his ear at just that moment, ducking into Jinki’s chest, wrapping both his arms around the other’s head.

“Minho, get off of me and run!” Jinki shouted at the man above him. Minho tore his gaze away from how he was eyeing one of the ravens circling the headboard of the bed to look down at Jinki.

“I can’t leave you, Jinki. If we run, we run together!” was Minho’s stubborn answer as he searched for means of escaping desperately.

“I have a baseball bat under the bed, Jinki. I’ll hold them back, you reach over the edge for it…” Minho said, lifting onto all fours to form a human cage around Jinki as he provided the angel with more space to move, still under his protection.

Jinki scrambled onto his front, pulling himself up with his hands gripping the edge of the bed as MInho moved with him, acting as his shield. Jinki was just about to reach over for the bat under the bed when a raven swooped down, targeted for his exposed arm. With reflexes as fast as lightning, Minho used his hand to bat the black bird away forcefully, releasing a pained growl just after.

Jinki looked over his shoulder to find Minho’s face contorted in pain as a trickle of blood rolled over his shoulder, down his clavicles and eventually fell onto Jinki’s back.

“Minho!” Jinki cried out, worry and anger clouding his mind. These vile creatures are going to pay for hurting his human.

Give me my powers back! Please!

Jinki prayed with all his might for his powers to return, all the while searching desperately for the bat with an arm outstretched to its extent, his vision hazing over with tears of fury and helplessness.

I have to protect him. I am his angel. That is my job, right? Give me my powers back!

Minho slumped protectively over Jinki’s momentarily exposed head just as the angel finally found the wooden shaft with his fingers. The moment Minho’s forehead touched the back of his neck, something hot shot through his spine and Jinki’s fingers instantly released the bat he had just found. White light that was blinding to even him lit up the entire room, his body heating up from the inside out.

Hold on, Jinki, came Jonghyun’s calm voice from somewhere.

Minho released another pained cry before his scream was drowned out by the white light that dissolved the world into nothingness.

A few moments of confusion and stretched out silence as everything settled down later, Jinki blinked his eyes open to find that he was still lying down the same way he had been earlier. But something was different. The ravens were gone. He felt recharged, his vision was perfect again, his heart was still beating but it did not seem too tired in doing so. Jinki realized only when he was pushing himself up onto his knees, that his wings were back and they were outstretched on his back. Jinki flexed the appendage, unable to believe that he has finally been restored to the way he was.

Minho.

Jinki turned around to look for his human. He was not on the bed. Jinki panicked, scrambling onto his feet to look for the other. He didn’t need to search far- Minho was lying on his back on the floor just beside the bed, unconscious.

Jinki fell to his knees beside him, reaching out to wake him up, calling his name frantically. He immediately pulled his hand back the moment he noticed that his fingertips left a burn mark on where they touched the other’s skin. It occurred to Jinki then, that he had gone back to being unable to touch the other.

Jinki resorted to calling Minho’s name repeatedly instead. He may have returned to his original state, but oddly enough he had still managed to retain the senses he had discovered in his powerless state. And at the moment, the pain in his heart was the feeling that was dominating all others as he watched his injured, bleeding human lay unmoving.

Help me…

“You didn’t tell me that Taemin was your subject…” Jinki stated blandly, hours after his worries had been soothed if just by a little. His human was now safe.

Jonghyun lifted his gaze from where he was watching the scene in Minho’s room unfold. Jinki had long since given up on trying to keep his eyes trained on his human as he was treated by Gwiboon, helped by Taemin. Still, he kept glancing back hopefully to see if Minho had opened his eyes or not, only to turn away again when he saw the red welts stretching down his back, the same welts that were much redder earlier until Gwiboon had slowly treated them all with a wet towel and antiseptic.

“You never asked…” Jonghyun answered, just as blandly. This was his way of protesting against Jinki. Against all that he has done, against what he had allowed to happen to him so far.

“I still don’t know what you were thinking, Jinki. He’s- You’re- It’s illogical…” Jonghyun chastised him. Jinki allowed him to because he deserved it. If it weren’t for Jonghyun, he would still be watching Minho being hurt by those monsters. If it weren’t for Jonghyun’s fast thinking, he wouldn’t have regained his powers. Jonghyun had saved him and now, his subject, which happened to be Lee Taemin, was helping Minho recover.

“Love is illogical, Jonghyun…”

“Stop it! This is not love! Someone has done something and we will find out who and what and fix it!” Jonghyun said determinedly. Jinki glanced down at Minho once again before shifting his eyes to see how Gwiboon was his hair carefully.

“Will he be alright?” Jinki asked, risking sounding very human with his concern. In fact, he ended up sounding exactly that way.

Jonghyun sighed heavily beside him.

“He’ll be fine. He was just knocked unconscious because he was touching you when you turned back. The heat must have been too much,” Jonghyun explained patiently, sounding like he was holding back his disapproval of Jinki’s excessive concern. When did the roles switch between them? When did Jonghyun begin to act like the more senior angel?

“I told Taemin to not tell any of the adults about this yet. But it’s only a matter of time before questions are raised, Jinki. Both here and up there…”

Jinki nodded solemnly. He knew this already. There was no need for Jonghyun to remind him for him to know that the higher-ups would be aware of this attack by them. Very little gets past them.

Jinki.

The sound of his name being called in that voice had Jinki snapping his head back in his human’s direction. He was waking up, slowly regaining consciousness. He must be feeling pain, he must be confused, he must be feeling a lot of things. And yet, the first thing he looks for as he comes to his senses, the first name he calls is the angel’s.

Jinki almost started crying in relieve, only managing to hold back with a self-restraint that he had naturally been blessed with for hundreds of years, the same self-restraint that this human had managed to make a joke out of. Jinki was glad that he still had enough of it left to keep his dignity as an angel, though.

“Jinki, we are what we are. You know better than anyone else that what you feel is not possible for our kind. Why do you still believe then?” Jonghyun asked, breaking his reverie.

“I don’t know, Jonghyun. I told you, I don’t know. All I know is that I fell for him somehow and now I feel bonded to him in ways I cannot explain! Do you not think-“

“Bonded? What do you mean?”

Jinki blinked from being interrupted in the middle of his angry ranting. He looked up from the scene of Gwiboon and Taemin trying to calm Minho down to look up at his best friend.

“He feels what I feel sometimes. He touched me when it should have been impossible for him to. He made this heart beat. If I weren’t in love with him, I suppose that I would be afraid of what he has managed to do to me…” Jinki admitted to the other, feeling lighter at the confession.

“I have to go see Changmin hyung. I think I know what is wrong with you. This is not love, Jinki, and I will save you,” Jonghyun said, walking away in a hurry from a confused Jinki, disappearing between white clouds.

 Jinki frowned as he continued to stare at the direction Jonghyun left in. Even if this was a curse, a game some cheeky being over on the Other Side was playing on him, Jinki didn’t want to lose it. It dawned upon him just then, that maybe he didn’t want to be saved. And the thought was not as disturbing to him as it should be.

~~~~~

“Gwiboon, I really appreciate what you have done for me. But you have to leave now…” Minho said, completing the train of thoughts in his head with ‘so that he would come back to me’.

Gwiboon looked perplexed by his behavior. Anyone would be. If what she said was true, then she had just found him unconscious on his bedroom floor with injuries on his back for no apparent reason. Her casual visit to Minho’s house after Taemin’s persistence had turned into a rescue of sorts unexpectedly. Now, here he was, fully awake and wanting nothing more than for the people who helped him to leave him.

Maybe Jinki was not here because these people were. Maybe he would come back if they left. He had to believe that nothing bad happened to his angel. He simply had to.

“Minho, you’re not feeling well and if you’re not going to tell your parents, then let us stay at least…” Gwiboon said, trying to calm him down as she caught his hands in hers to force him to look at her. It worked, for only a while, before Minho began to pace the room restlessly again, glancing out his window.

“No, I’m fine now. You two should leave. Really…”