The Sympathy of Angels
Disclaimer: I don't own FLCL, but my screwed up mind wishes I had come up with it all.
He wasn't human. Of course he wasn't the god or angel she saw him to be either. He wouldn't save her. He wished he could though. He wished as much as circuits and programming allowed. He dreamed in whirrs and clicks of her.
She existed outside of everything and amoungst everything. A passion of flame and need. The universe burned around her as her kitten slept. She burned as the river swept around her and she called, and she prayed.
Her angel couldn't come. Her god wouldn't come.
He watched her unable to understand. She stood knee deep in the river, a lighter flickering in her hand. Her eyes were blank and her face sad. Somewhere in him, beyond what he knew himself to be, he ached.
Nearby the kitten slept.
Nearby innocence wept.
The world burned for an eternity of a second, then fell unnoticed into the river. She turned to see him. She spoke his name. The name she had given him. The only name he knew and all that he wasn't.
He wasn't her angel or her god. He couldn't be what she desired. He couldn't even really understand it. He waited though as she walked to his side.
She lived in a vessel of desire. She drowned everyday, just to fall back into the water. She gave herself to flame that could never touch her. She cried out to a being that could never come for her.
He wanted to save her. He wanted to be her angel. He wasn't though. He wasn't anything really. He couldn't be. He was just a broken mess of wires and faulty programming. He was just a tool to be used and cast aside to the blackbirds.
She clung to him and took comfort in the familiar feel of metal, the sight of small black wings fluttering in the corner of her eye. She wanted. She pleaded. She prayed. She spoke nothing. She burned and drowned but she didn't let go.
He picked her up gently. He floated carefully into the sky. He took her where the flames and water couldn't touch her. He couldn't love her. He didn't know how. He could try though. He could make her happy, if only for a little while.