"Look, Charlie, let's go back to your apartment and I'll explain everything, I swear."
"How do you know my name?"

Leisurely acknowledging the rather luxurious condo that Miss Bradbury owned, Azriel nodded, impressed. "Nice place."

"Uh, thanks." She nervously accepted the compliment, fidgeting on the couch. Charlie watched the perplexing woman with vigilance. Azriel wandered over to her shelves and flicked the Darth Vader bobble head that rested there. Mustering up a sliver of courage, she spoke, a little louder than intended. "So, care to explain?"

As if she had forgotten that Charlie existed, Azriel raised her eyebrows. With sudden realization, she nodded. "Oh, yeah, sure." Stopping her strange examination of the apartment, she ambled over to the couch and plopped down casually. "So," she awkwardly rested her hands on her knees. "where to start?"

"The beginning," Charlie stated, as if it was extremely obvious, which it was.

"Yeah, well, it's a little tougher than that," breathed the angel, scratching the back of her head. Finally, she decided to get on with it. "Well, I'm your guardian angel."

There was a pause.

Another.

Then a scoff.

"Of course you are." A sarcastic remark was the response Azriel was expecting. No one ever believed it.

An idea popped into her head. "Are you hungry? I'm thinking pizza. That's still a thing, right?" The heavenly being questioned nonchalantly before disappearing into thin air.

Startled, Charlie scrambled to her feet, glancing anxiously around the room. With a clueless expression reigning her face, she rushed over to where her cell phone was. She didn't even know who she was going to call, but her muddled mind demanded that she needed to inform someone of the situation.

"Back!" With a yelp, Charlie dropped her telephone, the screen shattering against the hardwood flooring. "Apparently pizza shops are busy at two in the morning in Italy, that's why it took so long." Azriel set two plates with pizza slices on them on the coffee table. "You'd think they would be asleep-"

"H-how..." stuttered the afraid hacker.

Azriel shrugged with a smirk. "As I just said, I'm your guardian angel. I have certain powers, including teleporting to Florence to get us pizza, which I am not going to let go to waste." She relaxed on the couch, taking a bite out of her slice. Then she spit it out with a grimace, remembering that she couldn't actually taste food. "Well, it was great while it lasted," she muttered to herself.

Still uncertain, Charlie seated across from her 'guardian angel,' still clutching her fragmented phone. Eyeing the pizza and then the woman, she nodded. "Okay. Assuming that you actually are my guardian angel, then I have some questions."

"Shoot."

"Why show up now? Why not show up when I was eight and fell off my bike and broke my arm? Or when I was seventeen and got in a car accident? I could've used some help plenty of other times, but now?" She rambled slightly.

With a sigh, Azriel answered. "Short answer? The bosses upstairs didn't realize you were going to important until recently."

"Oh."

"Yeah." A silence permeated the room.

"So this is what angels look like? Not what I expected, to say the least."

Azriel shrugged. "Well, not exactly. My true form is actually gigantic and the sight of it has blinded some people before. So to be on Earth, my siblings and I have to gain permission from a human to use their body as a vessel. This one's name is Mickey Potter. She's twenty-six and works as a journalist for a newspaper in Seattle."

Charlie scrunched up her face and nodded slowly. "That's weird, but okay."

Sticking her hand in her jacket pocket, Azriel felt the folded reminder of the rules. She shook her head, stretching her hand out toward Charlie. "Hand me that," she ordered, staring at the phone in the girl's hand. Seeing no other choice, Charlie complied.

With a touch of her finger to the glass, the cracks vanished. Azriel delivered it back to its owner, and sighed. "Look, I'm technically not supposed to ever have spoken with you or even interacted with you." She admits. "That being said, if anyone asks you about me, you don't know me. Okay?"

"So you want me to lie to your boss. You want me to lie to God."

Azriel rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. It wouldn't be God you would be lying to. Just another angel. I'd appreciate it."

With hesitance, Charlie agreed. "Fine. But only because you're my guardian angel and you just saved my life."

"Thank you."

"So, if you can teleport, what else can you do?"

A smirk overtook the angel's lips. She never turned down a chance to show off. "I thought you'd never ask."

☼☼☼

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