“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” - Chamuel

Stop that. Almost instantly turned her eyes more attentive as they watch him, her angelic face expressing the mild surprise as only expected. Stop worrying. As he kept talking she realized something and it wasn’t that she enjoyed listening to his voice, because she probably didn’t. There was something about it, something too rough that she was convinced there’d always been but might just have come about through his billions of encounters with the humans. Something pessimistic which she didn’t understand the tone off. No. Instead she realized how, the words themselves, were something she had been needing to hear. She wasn’t eaten up by her hidden or suppressed doubts or her unspeakable jealousy of her siblings and their maybe unwanted freedom. And while she in truth didn’t much agree with what he spoke of; she couldn’t stand by his believe that there’d be questions she’d need to ask their godly Father, she felt strangely at ease and she didn’t close of anything he said.
Unknown words rested on her tongue, still awaiting her choice of whether she wanted to speak them or not, the moment she noticed him stagger. It was very faint, and might not even be descripted as that. However it brought concern to her brows as she watched him collapsed in a control manner, letting himself down as if not to let his body eventually give in on its own. Her lips parted as if to let the waiting words out, only they had been switched.
“Brother?” she asked worried and caring, not letting herself being too fooled by the sight carried by comfort. “Are you faint?” Quick on her feet, she stepped one step closer and firstly squatted down slightly beside him while still staying more or less in front of him too. And then she elegantly kept the movement going as she got all the way down on her knees. It was always such a strange thing for her to witness God’s angels when they were weakened. She had, of course, witnessed it before but it was also a thing that was easily overlooked.

Oh? Her eyes automatically followed his as they fell to the leather-stringed stone but not for long before she returned to look at his face instead, where she saw it smooth, saw how the reminder seeped into his youthful glow. He didn’t look faint nor pale. Rather he had a beautiful hue to his heavenly-created features. He looked up and their eyes locked on their own.

She gently tilted her head to one side and the original excitement mellowed out again, still being there, but not as out-bursting. She liked that answer. ‘Always’. She liked it very much. Out of all the answers possibly that one was the right one. Behind her, her many wings flapped gracefully. Just one time before calming in position again. She lowered her gaze, lowered her head as if the answer had left her bashful. “I still remember giving them out to all of you. Michael. Gabriel. Eos. Azrael. Raphael. Uriel. You. So many years ago. Pebbles. Then I didn’t even think of expecting any of you to keep them. I simply wanted to show you them.” She leaned herself towards him and reached to softly graze the stone by his chest to feel the smooth surface. It hadn’t changed. Expect for.. “Did you make the hole? I only remember giving Uriel one like that. And his wasn't this colour either.”

Remiel gently waved away her concern. He just needed a rest, was all it was. Rest and two years of continuous sleep, he thought to himself.
"I'm okay, Peace," he assured her, and leaned his head back on the wall behind him. He could probably even fall asleep right here, on the rough stones, he contemplated. More than being tired, his body was warm and exhausted but in a comfortable way. Like if he had been swimming all day in clear waters, soaking up golden rays of sun and finally gotten back on a warm beach - that kind of fulfilling, happy exhaustion. He had closed his eyes for a second, opening them back up as she lowered herself on the floor with him. Their eyes locked.

A faint smile lit up his face, as her wings fluttered like a hundred butterflies before settling in, returning to their graceful position behind her. His brothers and sisters had many different wings, but arguably Chamuels' were the most extraordinary. Where Uriel's were a beautiful, rusty red at the tips and Gabriel's were sharp and with a silvery grey touch, Chamuel had many sets. He had seen her fly many times before, and her elegance and agility was absolutely breathtaking. He, himself, had a more golden hue to his wings, warming up the soft feathers, easily matching his golden hair and warm brown eyes.
I still remember giving them out to all of you.
It had been so long ago. So long. And things had been so different. He hadn't known that she had given pebbles to every one of them, but it didn't surprise him. The thought made his smile widen.
"It has served me as a good reminder over the years," he told her, allowing her fingers to graze over the green stone. He didn't know if he had ever thanked her for the little, seemingly insignificant present. Truth be told he had nearly forgotten how he had gotten it, until now; such an old memory from such a distant life. "That father created beauty in every little place on Earth." Everything had a meaning if you gave it a purpose, and Chamuel had given the little pebble purpose the second she had thought of her family and taken it back with her.
Remy chuckled softly. He tried to not feel the heavy sadness of loss every time someone mentioned Uriel's name, but it was easier said than done. His jaw tensed for a short second before he caught onto it and relaxed his muscles. "He helped me make the hole," he explained. On a sunny afternoon in front of a random lake, back when they had been inseparable. "Would you believe me if I said I was jealous that he could wear it and I couldn't?" He added, lowering his gaze to try to hide the smile that had snuck its way back onto his face. Jealousy was not an emotion angels should feel, he knew, but that had probably been the reason. He had wanted the same, but had adored the beautiful green colour of his own pebble, so they had drilled a tiny hole, just big enough to put a string through.

Chamuel had already accused him of lying once since he had been back - although he had averted it by placing nuances to the meaning of thing and thereby already challenged her strictly black and white view - and while she didn’t like to stamp him as even more of a liar she couldn’t get herself to believe his words. He wasn’t okay. Not completely. She had noticed it in many of her siblings, her brothers especially; they carried invisible burdens which where all as heavy as many tons. They fitted perfectly onto their shoulders as if they were molded specifically to their perfectly created shapes. She’d have to stand as a liar herself if she ever denied that a hidden small part of her, suppressed and kept away from ever really fronting or dominating, was concerned for what affect life in Earth among God’s perfectly imperfect creations would have on her if she ever returned to stay permanently. Would he receive such irremovable burdens too? Would she be able to carry them as well as her the other angels? All this she noticed simply from the moment their eyes found each other, melting the two difference hues of irises together. He was only okay in the sense of feeling better than he did before, she believed.

With a bit of surprise in her face, she looked back up from the stone after having taken it in her hand, to look up at Remiel once again. It had served him. This somehow brought back the warmth in her chest which she had felt when she noticed him still having the stone. She felt pride. She felt joy. “I’m glad,” she replied, ending the few words with a smile, before she pulled her hand to her again, her fingertips just about grazing his naked skin in the slow movement.
Firstly she just let the hand grab onto the woven basket of fruit - which had still not been left where it was intended - as if she meant to sat squatted down with it balanced in her lap. But after more of his words had left his throat, she positioned her hands a bit differently to then move the basket off her lap and back into the floor simply so she could freely crawl over beside him where she turned herself around and sat down much like him with her back against the marbled wall. If Michael knew how they sat there, in the Father’s tower just by the Hall, he’d not be pleased. However it was only the two of them - and of course God who was everywhere and saw everything. She stretched her legs out and smooth the flowy shirt of her white dress to make it more inviting before expressing: “Here. Lay down and rest here. You need it.” She gently gestured to her lap, however he was just as welcome to take her shoulder as a more comfortably head rest than the wall. What would be best for her brother would be to be brought to Raphael but… she couldn’t get herself to pull him there immediately.

Him having answering with another questioned had her finally laugh in his present. “Why would you ever feel jealous of Uriel?” she let out through the tail end of her laugh before it stilled and stayed back only as a smile. “There are ways to weave around a smooth stone to wear it, you know? But don’t get me wrong I don’t mind the hole. Or the string. My thoughts ever got as far as she think anyone of you would want it as jewelry. I’m simply proud of your creativity. Makes me feel proud as your sister. Even if we haven’t been close for many eons.” Especially Uriel. She had had a hard time connecting to him since his purpose was both so close to hers and yet to completely different. And Remiel, he had always seemed on the fence with her, which had made her on the fence with him. This moment they were having was strange. But not horrible in any sense. “Eos told me to keep hers safe. Up here in heaven. Maybe she should’ve kept it. As a reminder like yours. Now of all times.”