#contains: police Stiles (implied)

[voidstilesplease]

serendipity

cw: mention of attempted suicide

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They stand on the rooftop of the Di Angelo Hotel, a luxury hotel 10 miles outside of Beacon Hills, gazing up at the starless sky and waiting for heaven's doors to welcome Theo home.

Stiles lowers his eyes, turning to Theo, who's scanning the space above for any indication from his father. Theo's face is blank, eyes unfocused, except for the small furrow of his brows. His hands are clenched inside the pockets of his trench coat, a gift from Stiles when he had expressed his desire to wear it after seeing a show with an angel wearing one. Theo had looked bizarre, out of place as nobody wore trench coats around Beacon Hills, but the wide grin, the smug satisfaction that he looked amazing in it, rendered Stiles's initial opinion inconsequential. Stiles will miss that smile.

They didn't speak on the way there, having already said their farewell yesterday when Theo's father sent his congratulations on earning his wings back after serving months of probation on earth doing heavenly missions. They gave silent nods of acknowledgment that their time together was over. Apparently, angels have been cast down to the mortal world for eons as punishment. They walk among humans, stripped of their wings, working their way back into heaven by accomplishing missions set forth by the Archangel. Theo has served his time, and now it's time for him to go home.

The corners of his eyes are stinging, and only then does Stiles realize that he's biting hard on his lower lip, trying to breathe evenly as he memorizes Theo's features one last time. The way his fringe falls on his eyes, the point of his nose, the shape of his jaws when he clenches them, the blue of his irises always so ethereal... If only Stiles can capture Theo's likeness in a photograph that he can carry with him after this. But he can't. Theo vanishes in pictures, as he will vanish without a trace soon. There's nothing of his that Stiles can hold onto apart from the months of memories they shared. But even those may not last, too.

Theo finally looks down at Stiles, forehead creasing in worry at the look on Stiles's face.

"That night," Stiles says before Theo can say anything. "I came on this rooftop with thoughts of ending my life." The confession comes out of him like the release of air he's been holding for so long. He never wanted to speak of it before - who would? But he can't let Theo go without letting him know. "My father had just been killed in action two months prior, and I got suspended from the force for misconduct. I couldn't hold my liquor, and I started every kind of fight with my co-workers."

Theo's attention is rapt on his every word with no attempt to interrupt him or look at him with pity. He only listens.

"It was Abby's birthday, Lydia's daughter, and they held it here. I couldn't-" his voice begins to break. "They convinced me to come, but I couldn't take all the merriment. I was out of my apartment for the first time in weeks, but I still couldn't get out of my head."

Stiles looks at his hand, at the scar that runs from his palm down to his wrist; the one he got when he jumped back from the ledge, the skin catching on barb wires, to investigate the object that had just fallen from the sky, a ball of light and fire it seemed, that created a hole on the rooftop floor and shook the entire building. A reminder that he almost did - that he didn't. He lifts his head again, laughing faintly, "You fell at the right time, Theo."

Theo takes the step that closes their gap, standing in front of Stiles with inches to spare between them. They've stood like this before, just on the precipice before stepping back. But not this time. "I will fall once more," Theo says, the words rolling in his tongue, his voice thick with a language he only learned to say not too long ago. "If it means you do not."

Stiles leans forward, his eyelids closing, to brush his lips against Theo's. And for a moment, they stay like that until Theo presses his mouth more firmly on Stiles for a proper kiss, with the latter opening his mouth in welcome. They move together, dancing for the first time to the music they've been playing for a while now. Their hands touch each other, finding their rightful places to hold the other close, tight, just a little longer.

"You saved me," Stiles whispers against Theo's lips, his eyelashes damp as he peers up to the angel.

Theo smiles, "As you saved me."

Stiles gasps at the sudden blinding light erupting from Theo, forcing his eyes shut again. There's scorching heat everywhere, white flames engulfing Theo's body, but Stiles isn't hurt at all. He hears a loud blow of air, an invisible force embracing his entire body - like a shield, protection - followed by the soft drop of a kiss on his forehead.

It only takes a few seconds. As quickly as the light came, it's quicker to disappear. And the next time Stiles opens his eyes, he is alone on the rooftop.

.

.

He doesn't remember why, but he doesn't wish to fall anymore.

~•~

steo a-z: part 19