Plan B

Angel awoke peacefully in his nest. He was grinning before his yawn had run its course through his body. There was a strange new buzzing that energized him. The Avian rose from his bed stretching his arms and wings, stretching his spine. He inhaled deeply, taking in the savory smell of pancakes.

“Mmm, what a good rest,” he muttered to himself. The boy paused halfway through rubbing one of his eyes when his thoughts drifted to last night. He didn’t remember getting home. The last thing that came across his mind was a memory of meeting a homeless man. It was all blank from there.

Refusing to let his good mood be hampered by a lack of memories, Angel shrugged the worry off and dressed for breakfast. He practically danced into the kitchen, startling Line and Ella.

“Angel!” Ella cried gleefully, clapping her hands together form where she was seated at the small dining table. “Mom said you weren’t home.”

“Yeah,” Line said, wiping pancake batter on her stained and yellowed apron. “I didn’t hear you come in last night - and I was up ‘til nearly midnight.”

Angel’s smile dropped, and he searched Line’s countenance for any sign of tension from yesterday’s argument. Her features showed nothing but concern. “Well that’s not right. The sun was just finishing setting when I came home.”

Line turned to fully face Angel now, her brow scrunching with confusion. “What? No way. The house isn’t that small - I should have heard you. You sure that was when you came home?” She turned back to her cooking.

The Avian carded a hand through his hair, lowering his face as it heated with embarrassment. “Not really. I don’t actually remember how I got here. But I left the shop pretty early. I lost my cloak, so-”

Line whirled around to confront Angel. “You lost it? Doesn’t that mean your wings were exposed?” Once again, she was wielding a spatula like a weapon, this one covered with bits of burnt pancake batter.

He nodded, sitting down to steal a piece of toast from Ella, who didn’t seem to notice. “Yeah, Osvald was teaching me how to ride his motorbike,” Angel managed through a mouthful of bread. “But I crashed, and I guess I lost my cloak at some point.”

“Did anyone see?” Line asked, now more calm and turning back to her pancakes. She cried out when she realized her breakfast was burning.

“Uh, only everyone that was downtown at the time.”

“That’s a lot of people, hon. Did anyone… like, attack you?”

“Well one kid asked me if I was his guardian angel. And-”

“What did you say?” Ella broke in.

“Well I tried to tell him ‘no,’” he said, holding up his and Ella’s plates for Line to scrape pancakes onto. “But he wasn’t really listening. Told me his dad beats him, so I gave him a feather.”

Line brought a near-empty bottle of syrup to the table before sitting down. “Angel, I don’t think your feathers are magical. That probably won’t help.”

“I know,” he said, slicing his pancakes into precise triangles. “But it made him smile. And that was nice, but on our way to Osvald’s shop, some guy threw a bottle at me.”

“That’s mean!” Ella cried.

“Yes, it is,” Line agreed matter-of-factly. “So you didn't run into trouble on the way home?” she asked, turning back to Angel.

“No,” Angel said, shaking his head. “But I probably caught too much attention.”

“I’ve got an extra cloak you can take, then.”

The Avian looked up at his adopted sister, smiling as he felt with reassurance that the anger from yesterday’s fight was gone. Maybe that was just one of those things that came with having a family.

Later that day Angel was helping Osvald with forging a particularly tricky alloy. The two were coated in a thin sheen of sweat form the intense heat of the furnace, and Angel was holding a variety of tools to quickly hand to Osvald so they were as efficient as possible. The Avian cocked his head when he heard the bell ring at the front desk. He looked to his employer for instructions.

“You go take care of it,” Osvald said. “It decreases the strength of this metal every time I have to reheat it. I’ll be up shortly.”

Angel was surprised by this request, as he’d never dealt with customer business before. But the idea excited him, and he didn’t waste breath on questioning Osvald’s directions. He shed the lead cover for his wings, hurrying to the front. He was relieved to see Mr. Naess and his daughter, as opposed to any customer that he hadn’t met personally.

“Oh! Good morning Mr. Naess, Julie. How can I help you?” The Avian spread a friendly smile on his face, which wasn’t too hard. He was honestly excited to see the human girl again. She was pretty to look at, even if he didn’t allow himself to develop any feelings.

However, he was surprised when Julie spoke, instead of her dad.

“Hello, Angel. It’s good to see you again. We’re not actually here for any tinkering business. We came to see you,” the teenage girl said with a smile, running her fingers through her blonde hair.

At this, the boy frowned. He looked to Mr. Naess and his frown grew when he noticed that the man looked… different. Angel wasn’t sure what it was, but something seemed off about him; maybe something about his face. And on top of that, he was staring - almost glaring - at the boy. “Oh,” He mumbled, trying to sound excited. He turned to face Julie again. “Uh, what did you need me for?”

“Well last time we were here, you said you didn’t know magic. And it just so happens that, uh, my father here - and me - we’re going up to the Floating Islands. And we were wondering if you’d like to come. The Avians there could teach you magic.”

Angel’s heart skipped a beat. This was what he had always wanted. He’d been begging for this oppurtunity for years, but now that it was here, he wasn’t sure he was willing to leave Line and Osvald. “Wow,” he breathed. “That’s very generous, but I don’t think I can afford that.”

Julie giggled perfectly. “Silly, you don’t have to pay. We could always use more crew members. You can come aboard as crew and the passage will be free!”

“But Avians don’t let humans into the Floating Islands.”

“Well we’ve actually got a special connection there. They’ve agreed to let us in!”

“Will I be able to come back?”

Angel swore he saw Julie’s smile falter, but perhaps it was his imagination. “Of course. We’re only going to conduct some research. We’ll even pay you!”

The boy’s eyes widened when he realized he could give the money he earned to Line. He opened his mouth to respond, but Julie shoved a piece of paper at him before he could utter a sound. Angel took the paper without actually considering it.

“You don’t have to answer now. But here’s the address for the airfield. We’re leaving tomorrow morning. Don’t be late!”

Julie turned and skipped out of the shop, Mr. Naess trailing silently behind her. Osvald reached Angel’s side just as the door closed behind the two. He looked down at the paper in his hands, an address and time scribbled in ink on the wrinkled parchment.

“Where’d the customer go?”

Angel jumped at the sound of his employer’s voice, fighting the instinct to hide the paper in his hands. “You snuck up on me, Osvald!” he said, to which Osvald only chortled. “It was Mr. Naess and his daughter. They invited me to go to the Floating Islands with them.”

At this, the older man frowned. “Are you sure that’s what they said? The government banned that area as a strict no-fly zone. No one’s allowed up there.”

Angel glanced between the paper in his hands and Osvald. “But… they offered money. If I can get them to pay in advance, I could send it to Line. She saves money on food while I’m gone and she gets more money. It’s a win-win.”

“If you’re that concerned with money, let me send more home with you-”

“No! You have a business to run. I can’t have you going under because Line’s having trouble supporting us. It’s my fault that she’s got financial troubles.”

Osvald’s frown grew deeper. “Tallak was not your fault, Angel!”

“I don’t care!” the Avian cried, his wings flaring in agitation. “I’m tired of being told these things are not my fault. It doesn’t matter. Because when it comes down to it, Tallak’s death, Line’s financial problems, my own mother’s death, they happened because I was born. I won’t spend my life blaming myself, but nor will I sit around doing nothing. I can make a difference, Osvald! I can fix the things that happened. I’ve spent my entire life being scared of the world, and I’m tired of it. I’ve been invited to go to this airship. They want me there. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Osvald’s mouth opened and closed as the man searched for the right words, but Angel didn’t give him the opportunity. He brushed past his employer to the back room, grabbing his cloak and swinging the back door open.

“I’m going, Osvald. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I need to pack some clothes and say good-bye to Line and Ella.” The teen stopped halfway through the door. He whirled around quickly, marching over to Osvald and pulling the shorter man into a tight hug. “I’ll come back, I swear,” he muttered into the man’s shoulder.

*

“You can’t just leave!”

“I have to!”

“No, you don’t. We’ve survived sixteen years like this-”

“No, we’ve survived six. And that’s going off Tallak’s savings after he died.”

“Angel, listen to reason.”

“I’ve been doing that since I was born, Line! It’s time for me to make my own decisions, even if I end up getting hurt.”

“I can live with you getting scratched up. I can’t live with you dying.”

Angel paused halfway through packing his bag. His wings slumped in defeat, and he turned around to finally face Line. He did his best to stand tall, as if maybe he had some confidence in the decision he was making. “I won’t die, I promise. I’ll even be a coward if I have to, but I won’t die. I’ll come home.”

Line bit her lip in an attempt to fight the tears currently rolling down her cheeks. “You can’t control that…”

“But I can pretend to have control.” He offered a weak smile.

Line shot forward to yank Angel into a hug, and the Avian could feel his shoulder moistening as his sister cried into it. “That’s not how this works.”

The Avian felt as if fishing hooks had pierced his heart and were yanking on it in every direction. It made him want to do nothing more than cling to Line and stay there forever. But his life could not continue like this. One day Osvald would pass away, and he couldn’t leave the shop to Angel. He needed to branch out and better himself.

“Come on, Sis. Don’t cry. I need you to stay strong - for Ella.”

Line pulled away, roughly rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand. She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Let’s have one last meal together before I leave, huh? I’ll even cook.”

“Don’t you dare,” she snapped, smiling a forced smile and laughing a sad laugh.

Author's Note

I wonder if I should post this to tumblr... I spent way too much time deciding if I should put 'nor' or 'neither' in the quote. I still don't know.

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