Wystro,
I hope you don't mind - I also made a siggy for you. Then a story came to me, so I did that too. It was heavily inspired by fairy tales, particularly two of my favorites - The Girl with the Silver Hands, which features both Angels and Demons, and The Princess who Never Laughed, which is just a sweet story.
(Kilandra, I hope I'm not stepping on any toes - I thought our takes on his character were different enough that they could co-exist peacefully.)
Worthy - A Fairy Tale
In heaven, Daniel had been man idealized. Pristine pale skin pulled taut over smooth hard muscle, a face chiseled from stone, flawless in every way. On Earth, he dirtied it up a little. No one wanted to be told to clean up their act, resist temptation, and get on the right path by some smooth-faced otherworldly being of extraordinary beauty; once they were done cowering in terror, they’d only resent some perfect asshole telling them what to do. Also, he found he rather liked his gritty, rugged appearance, even if his wide array of body modifications didn’t exactly lend him much credibility as an Angel. It was better that way – most humans couldn’t see his wings or detect his heavenly aura (another thing he’d bent his mind toward squashing as much as possible during his stay on earth). He could pass, for the most part, which was just what he wanted.
Only it was different this time, because of Beth.
Because so many life-changing decisions and major turning points occur when humans are young, Guardians tend to spend a lot of time working with kids. That wasn’t the problem; Daniel liked kids, and most actually responded quite well to him.
Beth was impossible to get next to. Daniel could understand that; it wasn’t without reason. She was the price her father paid to loan sharks for a gambling debt. They came to her school, threw her in the back of a van. They’d started with her pinky until one by one, they’d cut off the tip of each finger on her left hand. One each hour; they would call her father so that he could hear her screams. No one came. Eventually the thugs lost their stomachs for harming a young girl, and dumped her at an emergency room.
And where was Daniel? In Heaven, waiting for his next assignment Earthside.
There was suffering everywhere. He couldn’t intervene in every horrible situation. Even so, he thought it didn’t make much sense to send a Guardian after the turning point had already occurred.
He didn’t take her just anywhere to get new fingertips; this was a significant mod that required a careful eye and a sense of craftsmanship. The artisan made her a hand of silver so detailed that even her fingerprints were restored in the metal.
Daniel got a tongue piercing while they were there, for moral support.
He hadn’t figured on going home after that, or anything. A sign that he was moving in the right direction would have been nice, but he wasn’t in a huge hurry to accomplish a mission, to save the day and ride off into the sunset. He’d thought the new metal – well, of course it couldn’t fix everything, but he thought it would have helped. But he was nowhere. Beth remained impenetrable as ever.
He spent a lot of time, in between teaching Beth how to play the drums and attempting to bring her out of her shell, pondering just what he was supposed to be doing. She didn’t seem to need saving, either from some external demon or an inner one. She had a roof over her head, though obviously not her father’s – the community center where he taught music also housed homeless teens. She had food to eat, a little money from her part time job after school. The girl was tough, and Daniel thought she did an admirable job of taking care of herself.
If he were anyone else, her “I don’t need anyone” act might have convinced him. He wasn’t other people, though – he was a Guardian Angel, and he was in the business of saving people who didn’t know they needed saving.
He didn’t usually like to follow his charges everywhere. Even if the vast majority of humans would never identify him as an Angel, they could still sense that they were being watched. Besides, it was just bad manners, and a little creepy. He had very good instincts – if he needed to do some Guardian stuff, he’d get a feeling and run with it.
But Beth was special. Of course, he didn’t play favorites, and he did an equally good job guarding and guiding all his assignments. But Daniel liked her. He didn’t want to make any mistakes.
He watched her, slipping invisible as Angels will do. With her friends, at her job.
She didn’t smile, and never ever laughed.
An idea started to form. Daniel tested this new theory. His attempts to get her to so much as crack a grin fell flat over and over. Even joking around about the two of them getting through airport security. Not so much as a cheek twitched.
He wasn’t sure he was right, but he didn’t know what else to do. He knew humans should laugh. He did his best.
His best wasn’t good enough. Daniel began to despair. Could he not do even this simple thing, and make a girl who had suffered so much smile? He grew restless and pierced his eyebrow in a fit of frustration. When he showed Beth, she just shrugged, unimpressed.
She didn’t sleep well. Not that Daniel watched her sleep, or anything weird like that. It was one of those things he just knew. And so he couldn’t help but be pleased to see her nodding off in an easy chair late that night. She should rest. He would try again tomorrow, and again the day after that.
He crept over and very gently slipped the book she’d been reading out from under her metal fingers. A fit of sudden tenderness overtook him, then, and he found himself lingering, pushing a strand of hair off her face, touching her cheek.
“I’m so, so sorry.”
For failing her, for being too late. For being such a poor Guardian, unable to save himself, much less her. For caring so much and doing so little.
Her eyes opened, hazy at first, but rapidly widening, huge and incredulous.
“You…you have
wings.”
She looked at him, then down at her broken fingers, then back at him.
“Is this…are you…Daniel, are you trying to
protect me?”
And laughter bubbled forth.
“L…look at you! Oh, Daniel.”
He realized in that moment what she was seeing. An Angel in leather and metal, wearing a most earnest expression on his face. He supposed that might be amusing.
The harder she laughed, the more he felt himself fade. So he’d been right, he supposed. This was what he was supposed to do. But he was going back to Heaven now, all too soon, it was happening too fast. He reached out a hand and grasped at nothing, panic taking over, he didn’t want it to end like this.
Her expression softened and she reached up, taking his face in her hands, cold metal hard on his cheek. She kissed his forehead, said goodbye, or something else, Daniel was never really sure.
He blinked, and he was in Heaven.
Chaos reigned supreme. The Angels were rallying.
It would be war, then, and not against the Devil and his minions.
This could not stand. Everywhere, Angels were shouting prophesy in and amongst their cries for battle. Daniel would do the same; he would call out his testimony to the heavens, make them listen, make them understand.
He blew his trumpet, split paradise with sound. When it was quiet, he began.
“One worthy soul. That’s all we have to find, to stop this, to save humanity. Right? This girl…this girl had her fingers severed at the joint. Her Guardian showed up a month late and a rescue short, and she laughed about it. She saw how lost even Angels are, that it’s all just made up as we go along, and she laughed. And she…forgave us.
Do you appreciate how extraordinary that is? Are any one of you capable of that generosity of spirit, that grace, that soulful joy? This is our purpose. We endeavor to be worthy of these miracles, these humans, not the other way around! Turn away from this wickedness! We still have so much to learn!”
His entreaty was met with silence. One by one, the Angels turned their backs and went away. And when the last pair of wings disappeared in the fog, Daniel seemed to come awake, as if everything before had been a dream. In the distance, he could see an outline of trees.
Under his feet, the Earth.
He looked up to the heavens and whispered his thanks.
le
Sorry for the generic red/black nothing I did was working 
Hope you like it 
(linked for bigness)
But I will have mine posted by tonight (might have to wait until I get to class to use the internet there... so sorry for the delay!)
