It Never Rains (But It Pours)

Built For Each Other

By Saturday, their apartment was set up with new furniture.   They'd gone shopping for more clothes for Blake, polished his fancy black boots and put them away.  Blake now sported new brown leather cowboy boots that Adam assured him looked incredibly sexy.

Blake had been restless and didn't want to stay in the apartment, so Adam took him out.  They'd gone to the zoo.  In retrospect, that may have been a mistake.  Everywhere they went, crowds pressed against them, leaving them no privacy with each other.  The problem was that every time Blake approached an enclosure, the animals would immediately come over.  At first it was charming, the way the giraffes would lean over to nibble at Blake's hair or the elephants would stretch out their trunks to touch him.  But the other visitors at the zoo pressed in, eager for a rare chance to touch the animals, and inadvertently crowded Blake and Adam.  Blake didn't seem to mind, but Adam was scowling by the time they stopped to indulge in some ice cream treats.

Taking their ice cream, Adam sat down with Blake at a table beneath a pavilion away from the crowds. Even the pigeons seemed interested in Blake. They were still scattered around hunting for food, but between squabbles over meals they were all perching close to the angel.  The fact that they were crowding into the support beams for the pavilion over their heads made Adam anxious about what might come down from above.

"Well, at least that's a viable career option," Adam suggested, trying to find a bright side.  "I'll call Shakira Monday morning, see if she can't help you with paperwork.  Since we'll obviously never find an identity, she should know how to help us make a new one for you, or guide us to someone else who does.  Then we can get you enrolled in some adult education classes.  Once you've got your GED, we could look at getting you some training to be a groomer or a veterinary assistant, something working with animals."  He chuckled. "I think that childcare is pretty much out, buddy."

"Alright."  Blake was focused on a huge banana split, savoring every bite with his usual enthusiasm.

Adam smiled, watching him.  But his smile quickly faded as he processed his thoughts.  "When the warlocks let you go, what will happen?" he asked when Blake looked at him.  "Do you know?"

Blake paused for a moment between bites.  "I'll let go," he said.

"Let go?  Of your powers, you mean?"

Blake nodded. "I can't keep them as a human, Adam.  I can only use them now because of what the warlocks did to me.  The binding spell, it keeps me trapped between angel and human.  It helps me hide from demons, but it means I can't go back to Heaven.  When they let me go, it will be different.  I have to choose between angel and human."  He smiled at Adam.  "I choose human."

Adam reached across the table and clung to Blake's hand.   "I'm glad, Blake.  But I'm scared, too, and worried about what will happen to you.  If you become human, all this, like today with the animals and stuff, that will stop, right?"

"I don't know," Blake admitted.  "They know what I am now, but maybe not when I'm human. But I know I won't have my wings."

"Yeah." Adam squeezed Blake's hand.  "I gotta tell you, I'm gonna miss those.  But you're amazing all on your own, with or without them.  Just... Will you miss it?  Not just your wings, but everything about being an angel?"  He paused, and then plunged ahead.  "I want to make sure you really think about this, Big Country.  I get the feeling that this isn't a choice you can change your mind about later if things don't work out the way you planned.  Once you let go of your powers, they're not coming back, are they?"

Blake shook his head, looking serious.  "No.   I'll be human until I die."

"And that will be, what, the range of your natural life?"