Heavenstruck (Guardian Angel AU)

Your Death

His grin softened into a warm, soft smile, millions of memories flashing by in his eyes. "It's a bit sobering, to be honest. That experience of looking out at the world and seeing people pass by with the rain pittering on the windows—that's unforgettable. That's a level of calm I've never seen in my life. Well, my living life at least.

"We just stayed on the bus for a while after that, watching the world pass by us. I don't think we spoke to each other on that entire bus trip. I appreciated that. I hope he appreciated it too. I don't regret not speaking, but I do wish...

"Well. I suppose I shouldn't talk about that." George pursed his lips and frowned. Whether he was frowning at the world or at himself, Dream couldn't tell. "The only time we spoke to each other on that bus aside from that entire beginning part was when, was when... was..."

Dream's throat tightened at the way George's body tensed. "George, you don't need to—"

"No, I do. I need to." George paused, but his voice was strained. "We were at the front of the bus, and I just... got that feeling, that awful feeling when you know something awful's about to happen but you know you can't do anything about it. I saw it, you know. I saw that we were about to crash into the bus ahead of us. So I—So I..."

George sighed. His body slumped over, and he looked smaller than he ever had before. He had transformed from the George he knew now to the conflicted, torn angel that had fallen from the sky all those months ago.

Dream reached out to set a hand on George's shoulder, but George snapped away.

George crossed his arms, his muscles so much tenser than he had ever seen them before. Billions of memories flashed by in his eyes, all of them shattered into as many pieces as there were stars in the sky. "I, um... My body acted quicker than my mind did. All I could think about in that moment was him—where he was, where he was looking, if he would survive something like this.

"He was still looking out of the side window. Everything was still normal to him; it was just a normal day to him. As far as he knew, everything was still as fine as the entire trip had been up to this point, and he was happy—he was happy! I... I wanted to protect that."

"So, I, um..." George frowned and glared at the ground. "I moved in front of him and pushed him back. I don't know why I thought that'd be enough to protect him at the time. A crash of that caliber must've had more casualties than just me. But uh..." He paused after that for some time, his eyes glazed over and dull. Shards of broken memories were scattered everywhere. "Yeah. I don't remember what happened after that. I think I died."

That was a strange way of phrasing it.

"You think you died?" Dream said.

"Yeah. That's the last of my memories. I don't really know what happened to him either, if he lived or died. That's why I'm not supposed to be a guardian angel, Dream. I couldn't protect him." George's voice was quiet at the end of that, quieter than a tear dropping onto the floor. He had nothing left to say, and judging by the way he had his wings curled around him, he didn't want to say anything further.

But that wasn't right, was it?

As far as Dream knew, all of George's closest friends had been on that special 404 world: Punz, Alyssa, Ponk, Callahan. But none of them were dead. Nobody had indicated throughout their conversations that they had ever been involved in an accident, even less so that they had personally been with George when he died.

There was one person he was forgetting though, someone Dream hadn't met yet. That was—

"Hey," Dream called. Was this a good idea? Almost certainly not. But it was the only option he had left. "About your best friend... was his name Bad?"