Angel //An Ed Sheeran fanfic

//Angel//

For most people winter means jackets, beanies and maybe a hot chocolate or two. For her, a homeless girl living on the streets of London it means freezing nights, chattering teeth and blue lips. No one envies her life.

She'll say she doesn't notice their stares, but she does, oh she does. Their gazes are filled a mix of disgust, pity and a little fear. What the strangers who are giving her these stares don't realise is that they're only some bad luck and a few mistake from being almost no different from her. Believe it or not she was once 'normal,' well just as normal as anyone else. But things change and lives can spiral downhill, faster than anyone cares, or can imagine.

Buying a coffee is a rare treat for her so she makes sure to savour every sip, enjoying the way it warms her throat and she loves that holding the cup warms her hands too, something her ripped gloves never seem to. All too soon though,the cup is empty and her time at the café must come to an end. Unfortunately she simply doesn't have the money to buy another coffee as an excuse to stay here, which is disappointing because it's a far nicer setting and temperature in the café compared to being outside, where it looks as if it might start to snow any minute.

Leaving the café she makes the decision that she'll spend the night at a nearby homeless shelter because of how the weather's looking. Ideally she would spend every night at the shelter, but there's not enough space for all the homeless people in and around London to do that, something neither the mayor nor most of the citizens seem to care about. So to give others a chance she tried to spend as little time there as possible, even though that does mean she's often forced to sleep on park benches or in alleyways. Some nights she goes out and tries to earn some money, it's not a great idea and very few people would choose to do it, but she's gotta earn money somehow and desperate times call for desperate measures. Other than that she busks a little bit, thankfully she's always managed to keep her guitar, Greg, in fact it's one of the very few possessions that she hasn't had to sell to keep her addictions under control, and really it's only because Greg means so much to her that it hasn't been traded or sold, yet.

Walking to the shelter seems to be taking longer than she suspected. Not eating enough and smoking too much will have that effect though, she supposes.

After finally arriving she greets everyone who she recognises. She doesn't give them fake smiles and they don't give her any in return, she kinds of likes it that way though. Everyone has a story of how they ended up here, but few of their stories will ever be heard. She scans the room and is pleasantly surprised to see that there's a bed free, sleeping on the floor totally beats sleeping outside in the snow though anyway. She then notices an unfamiliar face.

He's wearing a fairly casual outfit, nothing special, but what catches her eye is his blue eyes and bright ginger hair. As if noticing that she's staring at him he starts walking towards her from across the room, giving her a little smile in the process.

He says hi and she does the same before they drift into an awkward silence, which he eventually breaks, "I see you've got a guitar, I assume you play?"

She just manages to bite back a sarcastic reply and instead says, "Umm yeah, I play. It's just a small hobby, I'm not that good at it. Do you play anything?"

His face practically lights up as he answers, "Cool, I'm sure you're great. I play guitar, sing and write songs."

Hmm, she thinks to herself, maybe we've found something to talk about.

"That's awesome! Could you maybe sing me a song?"

For a moment she thinks he's going to refuse, but he instead nods and motions for her to give him her guitar, which she does with only a small moment of hesitation, after all it wouldn't be the first time someone tried to screw her over, but he seems trustworthy enough to give Greg to.

Seeming a little nervous he says, "This is a song called Little Bird, off an EP I released." And then he starts to sing.

She discovers that both his voice and guitar playing is amazing, she's completely blown away, surely this guys will become famous! She tells him just that, he replies with a quiet thank you and starts to stuff his hands into the sleeves of his green hoodie. He then gives her Greg back and she's quite happy about that.

Shortly after that they return to taking, the awkwardness of only a few minutes ago all but forgotten. She finds out that he's actually trying to get a record deal, his favourite animals are cats and he really loves Lego. Mostly though he's asking her questions, which normally she wouldn't feel very happy about, but for some unknown reason she feel comfortable telling him this kind of stuff.

"Oh crap! I should've been home over an hour ago, Stu is going to kill me!" He suddenly exclaims while looking at his watch. She then wonders how long had she been talking with him.

She can't help the pang of disappointment she feels because he's leaving and so doesn't even both to ask who Stu is.

"I'll come back tomorrow though, if that's ok with you?" Her mood brightens significantly at him saying this, even though she's sure he mustn't be coming back so he can see her.

"That would be great, bye Blue" the nickname she'd been using as his name, because she didn't know his real one, had slipped out before she could stop it. Shockingly, instead of mocking her he just shoots her a cheeky smile.

"Well if you get to give me a nickname it's only fair that I give you one too," he pauses for a moment, thinking, "I'm going to call you Angel." After hearing his reply she smiles, truly smiles, for what she decides is the first time in, well as long as she can remember.

Even though she's sure if he knew more about her life 'Angel' would be the last thing he'd think of calling her. But it feels nice, very nice, she decides, having someone caring enough to give you a nickname, and the feeling of looking forward to something, even if it's a small thing.

"Ok, well bye again Blue."

"Yeah see you tomorrow, bye Angel."

He walks slowly, warming his hands in the sleeves of his hoodie he's glad to be going back to an apartment full of warmth, food and safety, though he can't help but feel sorry for Angel; why should he get a 'normal' life while she freezes on the streets or in homeless shelters? It just doesn't seem fair and he wonders what her life used to be like, or if there was a 'used to be' at all...