PART 2

“How’s he doing?” Chanyeol sat beside Yixing as he looked down on Earth where Joonmyun was playing a guardian angel to a stubborn kid named Sehun. 

            Yixing frowned, “I don’t know why but I feel uneasy.” 

            Chanyeol raised an eyebrow, “Joonmyun’s done this plenty of times.  He knows what he’s doing.”

            Yixing looked down at his hand where he could see dark lines.  They always comforted him before.  Whenever he felt alone or in doubt all he had to do was look at the tattoos on his hand to know that he wasn’t alone.  That he’d always have one person who would do anything for him.  And he would do likewise. 

It was nice to have someone like that.  Every angel was made with a soul mate, but they chose in the end if they wanted to bond to each other.  Being soul mates didn’t determine the actual bond an angel felt to one another.  The bond would be strong but loyalty and love was determined by the actual angels.  And it was even rarer to find your soul mate because Heaven was a big place.  It’s what made Yixing and Joonmyun’s relationship special. 

            So it came as a surprise when Yixing got a minor headache the other day.  Angels don’t feel pain.  They feel emotional pain and physical pain before death but that was it.  The only other possible reason for why he could’ve felt pain was if he or Joonmyun was going against their bond.  Breaking a bond was an extremely rare case. It had only happened once in all of history and that didn’t end well. 

It actually started a war of the Angels.  It resulted in the creation of heaven and hell.  But that was another story.  Yixing and Joonmyun weren’t important angels in Heaven, but it was surprising and important to Yixing all the same.  They had the perfect relationship.  They’d been having the perfect relationship, so he was reluctant to believe that the pain was caused by Joonmyun’s disloyalty.  Maybe Yixing had a rare disease, but he was an angel and angels didn’t catch diseases. 

            Joonmyun was a guardian angel and he was given missions to go to Earth to protect a human once every 500 years.  There were a lot of angels in Heaven so there was a huge rotation list. 

Yixing wasn’t used to being away from Joonmyun.  Heaven time went by much faster than Earth time so usually it would be a little less than a week Heaven time that Joonmyun was away from him.  Usually Yixing kept himself busy; he was one of the royal messengers in Heaven and he travelled from different wings of Heaven to deliver messages and such. 

There were clouds near the main gate to Heaven where you could sit and look down on Earth.  Angels had the ability to zoom in on specific things or people on Earth.  And whenever Angels wanted to see how Earth was doing they would sit on one of the clouds to Earth gaze.    

            Yixing never had the need to do this.  He knew Joonmyun would come back to him eventually.  But today after almost losing consciousness, he decided to go to the cloud and see how Joonmyun was doing.  He didn’t believe that Joonmyun could be trying to break their bond, but at the same time Yixing felt a sense of dread he’d never felt before in his whole existence. 

            From the cloud he could see Joonmyun smile affectionately as he pat a younger looking guy (Yixing assumed that was Sehun) on his head.  And even though Yixing didn’t feel physical pain now, he felt hurt.  Because Joonmyun used to only smile affectionately at him like that.  Yixing had never seen Joonmyun on a mission as a guardian angel before, but he doubted Joonmyun would act like that to just anyone.  At that moment, he realized it was possible to lose Joonmyun.  The guy he’d known for almost all his life.  The guy who he could depend on.  The same boy who saved him from being alone. 

            “Chanyeol.  Can I ask for that favor now?”

            Chanyeol turned to him with questioning eyes. 

            “Can I be an assisting guardian angel?”

            “You can’t stay away from him for even a few days?” Chanyeol laughed but he caught Yixing’s look, “I’ll talk to the Elder Angels about it now.”  And with a poof of air Chanyeol was gone.  Yixing fell on his knees as he felt pain go through his body again.  He could see Suho wipe Sehun’s bangs out of his eyes before he drew away his hand like it was burning.  Maybe Suho could feel the pain too.  But it probably wasn’t as much pain as Yixing felt as he watched his lover show affection for someone else.        

“Why did you do that?” Yixing turned around to see Chanyeol staring back at him with an appalled expression, “Joonmyun will never be able to become an angel again once he loses his wings.  You’re not going to get him back.”

            Yixing looked at the black scars on his arm where the tattoos used to be. 

            “He didn’t want to be with me.”

            “He was destined to be with you.”

           “You don’t understand!” Yixing got up and pushed Chanyeol, “You’ve never been bonded to anyone before! I could feel all his emotions like they were mine!  I felt pain when he felt it!  I could feel how depressed he was when he was here with me and not there with Sehun.  And I felt my own pain because of that!  It hurt to be with him!  It hurts to be away from him!” Yixing stared at the ground dejectedly, “But at least now he’s happy.” 

            Yixing was about to walk away but stopped when Chanyeol drew him back.  Yixing’s face turned red and he pushed Chanyeol away.  Chanyeol fell off of the cloud and had to open his wings.

            “You don’t understand what you did.  He lost his wings yes.  But he’s still an angel.  He has angel blood and DNA.  He’s not human, Yixing.  He can never be human.”

            “What does that matter?” Yixing was speaking in a calmer voice.

            “He might’ve lost his wings but he won’t be able to live more than a few years on Earth because of his DNA.  Only guardian angels can live on Earth.  He won’t live that long.”

            “That can’t be,” Yixing refused to believe what Chanyeol was telling him, “I was on Earth and I wasn’t a guardian angel.”

            “You were assisting a guardian angel.  That means you were given the same status as a guardian angel,” Chanyeol explained, “Only guardian angels can live on Earth and even then it’s temporary.  Angels aren’t meant to stay on Earth.  We belong in Heaven, Yixing.” Chanyeol clapped Yixing’s back comfortingly, “I’m sorry.”

            “NOOOO!”

            As fast as lightning Yixing turned into a ball of light and rocketed down to Earth.  He appeared beside Suho, who was just taking out a carton of milk from the fridge.

            “Yixing!” Joonmyun dropped the carton, but Yixing grabbed it before it could hit the ground.

            “You have to come back with me,” Yixing grabbed Joonmyun’s hand and started tugging him away from the fridge, but Joonmyun just shook his head.

            “Yixing, I have to stay here.  I can’t leave him right now.  Don’t worry about me; I’m going to be alright.”

            “Alright?” Yixing exclaimed, “You’re going to die!”  Even though it had been a little less than a day in Heaven time, Earth time had passed by more quickly; Joonmyun spent half a year on Earth already. 

            Joonmyun just laughed, “That’s what I’ve heard.”

            “You knew?  Why didn’t you tell me that?  I wouldn’t have broken our bond!”

            “I’m happy, Yixing,” Joonmyun moved past Yixing.  Their arms touched and Joonmyun paused for a second before he moved towards the sink. 

            Yixing rubbed his shoulders.  When their arms touched it felt like a burning fire but as soon as Joonmyun walked away, Yixing felt the temperature drop dramatically.  He looked over at Joonmyun, “Why’s it so cold in here?” He couldn’t stop himself from shivering as he looked around, trying to find the source of the cold.

            “You need to go back,” Joonmyun immediately grabbed Yixing’s hands and started blowing into them, “You’re freezing.”

            “I….I don’t know w-w-why I’m s-s-so c-c-c-c-cold.”

            “You’re a full angel.  You need to go back.  You can’t stay here or you’ll die,” Joonmyun was putting his hands through Yixing’s hair and Yixing paused just to savor the sweet moment. 

            “Don’t worry about me, Yixing.”

            Yixing gained strength as Joonmyun held onto him; he instantly felt warmer even though his face was turning a light shade of blue.   

            “How can I not?  You’re going to die.  How is that…how is that even possible?” Yixing was talking more to himself as he realized what that really meant.  He would lose Joonmyun; his other half.   

            Joonmyun laughed, “Don’t you believe in me at all?  I promise I’ll come back to you.”

            “This is different Joonmyun.  You’ve never been close to death before.  You’re a fallen angel; there’s no way you can come back.”  Yixing was grasping onto his Joonmyun’s arm tightly, “Just let me take you back home.”

“You have to believe, Yixing.  I promise you I will come back to you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Yixing yelled, “Why are you staying here?  Look at you!  You’re weak!  Your hair is thinning, your skin isn’t even a healthy color!  Why?” Yixing’s voice broke, “Why aren’t I good enough?”

Joonmyun froze for a second as he looked at Yixing’s frustrated, hurt and confused face. 

“You are good enough,” Joonmyun pulled Yixing towards him so they could hug.   

“Then why are you with him?” Joonmyun was opening his mouth but Yixing stopped him, “Do you still love him?”

            Joonmyun’s hands dropped and the warmth disappeared; Yixing felt his body drop at least 30 degrees in body heat.  If he didn’t go back to Heaven he would freeze and then turn into dust within a matter of minutes.

            “I do love him.”

            “Then I’m going to stay here.”

            “No!” Joonmyun argued, “You’ll die here if you don’t go back now.”

            “That’s the point.”

            “Stop being stupid.  Loving the both of you is different!  I still love you, Yixing.  No one can ever change that!”

“But he did!” Yixing yelled, “And you chose him!” He could feel tears roll down and freeze on his cheeks. 

Joonmyun brought his hands to Yixing’s cheeks and rubbed off the frozen drops, “Just because I’m here now doesn’t mean I chose him over you, Yixing.  I would never choose anyone over you.” 

“You’re going to die!  Do you understand that?  You’re dying for this guy!”

“Death is only a word.  It can mean different things.”

“If that’s so, then you can see me die in a few minutes.” Each time Yixing spoke, fog would come out of his mouth.  His hair was turning white from the frost forming on his head and clothes.  His skin was getting bluer by the second, “You might be willing to die for this guy, but I’m willing to die for you.”  Yixing’s teeth were chattering.   

 “If you still love me then go back to Heaven!” Joonmyun’s warm brown eyes turned a fiery gold and without hesitating Yixing turned into flames and went back to Heaven.  He still loved Joonmyun and he would do anything the red head told him to do.  

Thanks to Metric Constellations for the Part II poster.  They are amazing and I go to them for all my EXO stories.