A Match Made in Heaven | Doctor X OMC | Doctor Who

A Christmas Carol (Part 3)

The sky called to him like nothing ever had. His home world was beyond beautiful. In fact, Haylen didn't have words to describe how he felt as the very air caressed him as if in welcome.

He'd been brought from the top of those stairs to the entry point of their planet, a large silver spiral staircase that went nowhere. It was just floating there, in the middle of the sky.

It made sense, he thought distantly, why only Angels could set foot on Vita Aeterna. Traditions aside, there was no planet surface. It was just a mass of islands and cities floating in the sky. How they'd ever made this a thriving civilization, he didn't know.

He leapt off the silver stairs, letting his wings unfurl and catch him on the wind that blew around him playfully. There was something in the very air that filled a part of his soul that he hadn't even realised was empty before now.

He spent long minutes soaring through the air, circling islands that were no less amazing for the fact that they had long since become ruins. As much as he yearned to have seen his planet with its occupants, it was more than he'd ever dared to hope for to be able to see it at all. When his mate had told him that it had never been found, he'd grieved, but he'd accepted it none-the-less.

Now here he was, letting the wind carry him around the planet of his birth. The place he would have one day ruled, had certain circumstances not gone the way they had. It was such a strange thought.

It wasn't even as though he'd ever wanted power over others, more that they would have been his responsibility one day. And he'd failed them before he'd even had the chance to promise to protect them.

The familiar blue-white light of his father's grace appeared beside him in a flash of sparkling energy. It didn't stop there, though, and transformed into the figure of the man his father had been at one point, if Haylen had to guess.

He nearly fell right out of the sky in his shock at seeing another Angel - a transparent one, but definitely another Angel. He had to wonder how his father hadn't been self-conscious if that was how he'd dressed before he'd died.

The man was wearing metal boots, shoulder plates, gauntlets, and a thick belt that held up the only real piece of clothing that covered him, which was more skirt than anything else. The metal shone in the bright light of the sun that their planet revolved around, adding another layer of intimidation to the thick muscles that coated the man's body.

Long white hair, and longer white wings splayed out behind him, ruffled by the breeze that he'd fallen into instinctively, flying easily alongside Haylen. He didn't even seem to have noticed his son's shock at seeing him.

He turned bright piercing blue eyes on Haylen, a small smile playing on his lips at the surprise still clear on his face.

'My son,' the transparent version of his father said. 'It is good to see you back where you belong.'

'Is this- what is this?' Haylen asked, telling himself he wasn't hoping for what he was. There was no way that any of them had survived, right?

'The ambient grace that soaked into our planet over the millennia is enough to sustain my form outside of your body,' he replied gently. 'My own body is long since gone.'

So he could have his father back, but only when they were here. It wasn't ideal, but it was more than he'd ever known to hope for.

'So, what do you think?' Azrael asked, his smile widening as he turned to take in their home. His wings moved lazily, allowing the air currents to move them around with the ease of a lifetime of practice.

'It's beautiful,' Haylen replied, eyes stinging as he took in what should have been familiar islands.

'It is,' his father said quietly.