What is Eternal?

[hesperussword]

Sleep was something that angels didn't need but they were drawn to others when they slept. It was hard to say why they were so drawn, protectiveness of a guardian, fascination with something they didn't experience? All angels would agree that there was a beauty to someone sleeping, particularly a human. They were made for this, the archangels, to watch over humans when they were vulnerable, and an archangel passionately devoted to a human succumbs to that desire faster than any other.

It left the angel laying quietly for hours in the dark of the night. He could often rest there with his lover in his arms but a nagging feeling brought him back to wakefulness as the human fell into dreams. He'd watch him, memorizing the sound of his breath when everything fell away from conscious thought. The mortality still felt wretched and Lucifer told him the only bandage for that was memories when the death finally came. The moments without distraction, while the rest of the world was quieter gave way to opportunity.

Slow, warm breath against his shoulder accompanied by the soft curls as the human pulled closer in the last unconscious moments before he relaxed into sleep. He could hear the heartbeat slow, a steady rhythm of life the angel would have go on for eternity if the power was his to command. The subtle changes to hearing so sensitive. The opening and closing of the valves and flow of blood rushed in his ears as much as his own when emotion raced the angel's pulse. It was the same with breath, and the breath and pulse mingled into a quiet symphony that was the man in his arms. He could hear it now or if he were in another room. Beelzebub always listened to it even when they were busy in their own tasks.

Here though, more than those sounds committed to memory. It was so much more with his senses that made those of other angels seem dull. Warm skin pressed to his chest like silk, and even there the pulse lightly moving beneath the surface. It was the same beneath his hand on the small of the knight's back. It was everywhere, the gentle reminder of life, unlike humans which could feel it only at a select few points. He could name this human simply by the slight warming of the air around him, the distinction between him and any other clear to the archangel. It was one of many subtleties that were part of memory now.

A gentle hand came up to the human's soft curls. He adored them, the riot of feathery hair and golden color like the white of the sun mortals couldn't look directly upon. One of the many places his hands found themselves more and more often. Deep down he knew that affection tainted thought but he would swear these curls were more pleasing to the touch than angel down. That didn't matter here in the dark where only their truth was right. He wondered if it was possible to memorize every strand of hair, each individual among thousands.

The angel paused here, arms wrapped around the human, eyes closing to cut out the visual input. Perceptions changing to the scent that lingered with his own of fire, cedar, and sulfur. There were those that carried from other items leather, and tea, and lingering perfume from the bath the night before. Under it all was entirely different. It didn't have words to attach to it but like pulse and warmth, here too there was a uniqueness to the human that no other being had. A smell that lingered in the space after he left and in the angel's feathers after they were touched. It was intoxicating.

Senses fell away as the angel focused until the physical world was out of mind. The soul beneath it all was a spark the angel dare not touch, but he knew it. That spark had fluttered inside when they had finally spoken aloud what they had felt first when they argued nearly a month ago at the villa. Time had passed to get those emotions to words. Here was something beyond feeling or sensation. The angel was bound here, a tether so strong that nothing in any universe could break it. Oathbound by his words when he spoke. It was eternally binding, even after the human was taken by mortal frailty the bond would remain. He regretted nothing of what he spoke.

“Beelzebub?” His name came sleepily and pulled him back to the physical world. He smiled at the still closed eyes of the human nestled at his side. Lucifer's words were in his mind. “You'll know when you're willing to give eternity for something fleeting.” The angel knew it was true. He'd give his life, an eternal existence, for a human that might live another six or seven decades.

“Sleep. I'm here.” He doesn't know why the human woke but the angel reassures him with words and a wing tucking around the smaller man. The angel relaxed in position, returning his attention to the breath and heartbeat that haunted his thoughts, if a haunting could be a thing of pleasure.