I'm By Your Side

As Gabe waited for the kettle to boil, he couldn't help watching what was happening outside. He felt like the good weather had purposefully arrived now to spite them all. The school was currently in chaos, some kind of mysterious flu-like illness had broken out, and it was causing people to fall extremely ill. The worst part was the bug, or whatever it was, was highly contagious so once you came into contact with someone who had it you knew you were doomed.

Fortunately Gabe hadn't caught it yet, but he was pretty sure it was only a matter of time. After all, Bill was lying in his bed right now, and the poor boy was sick as a dog. At first, the angel had hoped that it was some sort of ordinary illness that he'd have easily been able to help cure but it was extremely hard, even for Gabriel, to get rid of it. He'd tried to help reduce the boy's fever and some of his pain but he wasn't sure how much of an impact it had made on poor William. Gabe really hoped he didn't catch it himself, as he'd heard horror stories of people's powers going whack, and he'd had a hard enough past with controlling his powers so he could only imagine how much harder an illness would make it.

When the kettle finished boiling, he poured the hot water into a mug with a teabag and let it brew for a while before bringing it over to William. "Here you go querido, this might help a little bit." He sat on the edge of the bed, beside the boy.

Gabe was secretly hoping that he was immune to this disease, as he really didn't think it'd go down well for him. Hopefully the fact that he was angel might mean he'd be able to avoid this. He tended to get lucky when it came to illnesses anyway, even when he was a human he'd only been properly ill a small handful of times.

When his boyfriend called out to him, Gabe nearly spilled the mug of tea he was holding. "You're exaggerating right? Do I have to bring you to the infirmary? " Not many things phased Gabe, and it was unlikely you'd get to see him in a panic except when it came to William. Gabe was extremely protective of Bill, and tended to worry about him far more than was necessary.

"Yeah is that okay? You didn't want sugar or anything in it did you? I think we're out of milk..." Gabe supposed he could run to the store, but it probably wouldn't be worth it for a couple drops of milk. "Did that help?" Gabe wanted to give the boy an affectionate kiss, but if there was a sure way he'd get the disease then kissing William would be it.

That question had taken the angel by surprise, "I don't know, I guess you could say that. " He tended to attend a lot more parties and events like that than his significant other did, but lately he wasn't so sure if he'd deem himself popular. He had a reputation after all, but it wasn't necessarily a good one. "I couldn't tell you," Gabe shook his head, no one he'd been very close with had died so he hadn't been to any of the funerals. "I know there were a few," he frowned, "but I've no idea what their names were. " He began to wonder if anyone had died recently, perhaps the disease that was spreading around was a killer. "Why? You're not worried you're going to die are you?" Gabe would rather anything happen than that, he didn't think Bill was that ill yet though.


"Mmm I think so, " Gabe couldn't really remember anything past waking up. "I mean, I woke up and I had wings and shit, and then I realised I was in a hospital bed. " He frowned, "that creeped me out so I left." He was lucky no one had caught him, then again why would anyone have been checking up on him if they believed he was dead. "If I received a new body, I don't remember it happening. "

Gabe had heard about that poor girl as well, although he hadn't been sure whether it was true or not. It was a scary thought to think there were predators like that lurking around, but then again there were a lot of powerful people around the Academy and your faith could easily fall into the hands of one of them if you crossed them the wrong way.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't, " Gabe reassured him. "It feels the same, and looks the exact same. Apart from the obvious, wings, but you know." He rested his head atop of Bill's, "but what if this was a new one, would you still like it? " The angel presumed Bill would, after all it didn't really make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Gabe liked to think it was his human body though, the body he grew up in since day one.

"Well...dying wasn't pleasant and I don't want to put you through hearing what it felt like in case it upsets you, querido." Gabe pulled the boy into his chest a little more, "I suppose I could tell you a bit about after I died, though. Couldn't I? " The question was more for himself to mull over than for his boyfriend to answer.

"When I died...it kind of felt like I was dreaming or having some weird kind of out of body experience. Everything was really bright, " he frowned a little, trying to remember. "And then these people, or I mean angels, appeared to me. They're like really high up in the ranks or something, archangels they called themselves. And they explained to me that while technically I should be dead they were going to grant me immortality and turn me into an angel. "

Gabe laughed a little, remembering what came next. "I said that it all sounded really cool but would it hurt? They said I wouldn't feel anything that was happening to me physically. " He wondered if he'd said enough for now, and glanced down at Bill to check that the boy was still interested in what he was saying. "You wanna know why they chose to send me back though?" He paused, dramatically. "I was sent back to look out for somebody special....and that person is you. "

Gabe was smart enough to realise that his story did sound ridiculous, even though he had been telling William the complete truth. He didn't think there was any way he could convince Bill that he wasn't making it up without the boy ending up thinking that Gabe had lost his marbles when he lost his human life. So the angel just rolled his eyes and laughed along with his boyfriend.

Gabe's eyes followed Bill as he crossed the room, wondering where the boy was going. He didn't think William should be out of bed unless it was absolutely necessary , as he was overprotective of the teen and didn't want him to become any sicker. "Do you think it's really a good idea to be-" He cut himself off as another thought crossed his mind, apparently at the same time as it crossed Bill's. "You haven't taken any medicine today have you?" No wonder the poor boy was feeling so awful. Gabe groaned realising he was going to have to be the one to give it to William, and that was not going to happen without a fight.

"No. Don't you even think about running from me, mister. You need to take your fucking medicine. " Gabe had even gone to the trouble of getting liquid medicine, as he knew Bill despised pills. He pulled himself off the bed and began to cross the room, which admittedly didn't take long.