Adore // Oneshots

Heaven's Gate (Joshler)

CATEGORY: supernatural au, angst
FEATURING: human!Josh and angel!Tyler
TRIGGER WARNINGS: LANGUAGE AND MENTIONS OF SUICIDE, PLEASE READ SAFELY!!!
PROMPT: Josh never believed in angels, until he met one.
WORD COUNT: Approximately 2,250
Fun fact -- I was inspired to write this story after seeing a vulture sitting on top of a telephone pole with its wings outstretched, very cool.

Nothing about Josh's day was beautiful, except for the angel.

He'd been walking to get the mail, the morning that he saw the angel. The mailbox was at the end of the long, winding dirt road that Josh lived on. It was his job to walk there every morning to pick it up.

Josh lived with his mother in a small house in the country. The land itself had belonged to the Dun family for ages, and was passed down for years before eventually landing in the hands of Josh's father. Josh had lived in the country all his life, and he knew it well. The forest was tricky, and you could get lost easily if you didn't know it, but Josh did. His father had taken him there since he was a little kid, teaching him about nature and showing him how to navigate it.

The sun was shining through the gaps in the trees, dappling the ground with pieces of light. It was a little chilly, but Josh had brought his sweatshirt, so he wasn't too cold.

Before long, Josh had arrived at the end of the road. He unlocked the mailbox, but it was just junk mail. He took the mail out and closed the box again, about to turn back towards the house, but he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. Squinting slightly in the light, he looked up, and he saw it.

A sparse line of telephone poles lined the main road, and perched upon the nearest one was a beautiful creature.

The first thing Josh saw was wings. Two massive, gorgeous wings, each one easily the length and size of a small car. They were a soft, beautiful white, with pale gray wing tips and feathers on the bottom. The wings were outstretched from the creature's back, facing the sun, and Josh was reminded of the large birds of prey that sometimes sat on the telephone poles to warm their wings before flight.

The wings were attached to the back of a boy, about Josh's size. He had dark, fluffy-looking brown hair, with caramel skin and closed eyes. He wasn't thin, but narrow--sort of delicate. Something about the boy was so beautiful, so perfectly ethereal, that it made Josh feel drab in comparison.

Slowly, carefully, Josh approached the telephone pole. He tried to be absolutely silent, so as not to startle him, and he kept his eyes locked on the boy's delicate figure and broad wings.

"It's okay, I know you're there," the boy said, without opening his eyes. His voice was as soft as his appearance.

"Are you an angel?" Josh asked quietly, as if trying not to spook a wild animal.

"I am."

Josh swallowed. There were so many questions running through his head, but his mind somehow couldn't get past one phrase in particular. "You're beautiful."

A smile appeared on the angel's face, and he opened his eyes--they were brown. "Thank you." His wings stretched out wider, and then he began to flap them, the sound of heavy wingbeats filling the air. Josh could only watch in awe as the angel was slowly but surely lifted into the sky.

It was only until the angel was almost out of sight that Josh thought to say anything. By then, however, it was too late; the angel was only a speck in the sky, and then he was gone.

----  ----  ----  ----

Over the course of the next few days, Josh decided that the incident with the angel had been only a fantasy. A dream, or perhaps a hallucination--he wasn't sure. All he was sure of was that angels weren't real.