Um. I was thinking about updating "Eyes", but... I was lurking around on the internet (I'm a creeper, I know, don't pretend like you don't love the ideas I get while looking around the web) and discovered ANGEL.

Now, I haven't seen the movie where Angel appears YET. But I definitely plan on seeing it sometime soon... as soon as I can get my mom to drive me to the library where hopefully they have it on DVD. *sweatdrop* But anyway, I absolutely love Angel's character, and the wings I think are beautiful. Actually, the first thing I did when I saw a pic of him was gawk, drool, and go "SUPER HOT." Deep I know... but the wings aren't just beautiful - I mean, they must hurt quite a bit. So while I do love the wings, I feel bad that they're a part of him that must put him in a lot of pain. I admire that he kept them even though they hurt him; he realizes they're a part of him, and for that I hold him in a high respect.

... Well. I'm becoming rather rambly, aren't I? Sorry about that, I get passionate about this kind of thing... even if they're not real people. |D STOP TALKING, YOU IDIOT! XD

Well, I hope you enjoy the story! Full quote will be in the beginning of each chapter, just to remind you how it ties in as the story progresses. LET IT BEGIN!

Who if I cried out,

Would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?

And even if one of them suddenly

Pressed me against his heart:

I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror

Which we are still just able to endure

And we are so awed

Because it serenly disdains to annihilate us.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Cadence James rarely ever left her room in the Xavier mansion. She stayed there, in the dim light, just... existing. As far as most people knew she didn't really do much. She sat there, staring into the candles that were the only source of light in the room. It became a sort of rumor among many of the younger children there that she did this because she was trying to deny or remove her mutant powers.

The older ones knew better. Cadence didn't exactly mind her powers, though she had admitted several times it might have been easier to live without them. And after that she commented quite bitterly that she'd never know, however, if it would be or not.

She was secretive, and because she was twenty-three she had no classes to attend at the school. She'd been here for almost five years, and everyone knew that you simply left her be. You didn't bother her if she didn't want to be bothered. If she didn't shove you out of her room, that meant it was okay to talk to her. If she did, that meant you got away as quickly as you could and didn't return for the next twenty-four hours.

She hated coming out of her room because she didn't like new people. Kurt Wagner, for example, had a nasty run-in with her his first day in the institute. That was when he discovered she was by no means afraid to use her powers on anyone she didn't trust. You wouldn't have thought a young woman could manipulate so many sharp objects, but evidently she was mad...

Point was: Cadence didn't come out of her room for anybody. If you wanted to see her, you went to her. She didn't come to you, ever; not even if you asked nicely. The only people who took the trouble to visit her were Ororo, Kurt, and Bobby - and Bobby only did it to bring her meals, since Ororo would give him a death glare if he refused.

Cadence was buried so deep in her own room and thoughts, she hardly ever noticed when new mutants arrived. She had to be told, and usually she had no interest in meeting them. She came out of her room maybe once every few months, and this month... she figured it was time to stretch her legs a bit.

She blew out all the candles before opening her door and stepping into the hallway. She began to walk, very slowly, toward the stairs, heading for the lounge downstairs. She was quickly joined by Kurt, who came up behind her and threw his arms around her in attempt to scare out whatever daylights still existed. "Guten morgen, Dämonin!" he cried, walking behind her and playing with her dark raven hair. "You must be getting bored to come out."

She shrugged, reaching behind her to affectionately stroke the symbols on his face. "I just thought it was time for a little change of scenery for a while," she answered, dropping her hands down again, once she'd touched her favorite symbol on his cheek. "That's all."

"You never get bored in zere, Dämonin? You must have a vivid imagination then," he teased, adjusting the small cross charm around her neck.

Cadence snorted. "Well, I'm not doing crack or anything in there. That's just for New Year's, m'love."

"Ah, I see. So, ah... vhere are ve going, Dämonin?"

"I was going to head to the lounge, but now I'm a little hungry. So let's go to the kitchen?"

"But of course. Any'sing for my Fräulein Dämonin. Vhy? Because, she is my best friend in ze whole vide vorld."

"Kiss-up. You're only saying that because you don't want me to stab you in the ass with a butter knife again."

"... Vell, zat's part of it."

"You're scared of me?"

"... Ja, a little."

Cadence grinned evilly. "Good."

They had reached the kitchen, but before Cadence had a chance to head to the pantry, someone bumped into her from behind. Immediately bristling with anger, she whirled around to face whoever it was. "Will you watch where the hell you're going!" she snapped.

Kurt attempted to pull her back a bit, in hopes of quelling her fury. "Ach - I'm sorry, Engel, she just hasn't had time to adjust herself back to ze vorld," he explained, holding the smaller woman back. "You must excuse her - she usually doesn't mean much of vhat she says. She's irritable in ze mornings - und in ze afternoons... und most evenings..."

Cadence found herself faced with a oung man who had short, wavy blonde hair and the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. He was wearing a light tan coat, so she couldn't see any more of his body than his head and hands. "I-I'm so sorry," he stammered out in apology, taking a step back. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was... I-I'm very sorry. Are you hurt?"

She straightened, yanking herself out of Kurt's grasp. "No, I'm fine. But I'd like to get my breakfast now."

She'd turned to leave when Kurt grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back toward the young man. "Dämonin, you're being so rude," he whispered, placing his hands firmly on her shoulders. "You don't vant to hurt Engel's feelings, do you?"

"I don't care! I'm hungry, Kurt! Let me go!"

"Nein, Cady. You don't get good until you are nice und forgive Engel."

"Bribery. Not your style, Kurt." Cadence shot a dark smirk over her shoulder at him. "I am rubbing off on you!"

"Ja." Kurt wrapped his arms around her waist and held her, preventing her from leaving. "Jetzt, say hello."

She struggled for a minute, pounding on his arms and trying to wiggle free, but then decided it was futile. She dropped her arms down and resignedly looked up at the blonde - albeit not a very happy expression. "I don't believe we've met," she said pointedly, through clenched teeth.

The man gave her a shaky smile, and extended his hand. "I'm Warren Worthington." He rolled his eyes to the ceiling for a second. "The Third."

She looked at his hand a moment, as if it were a cobra about to strike her. Finally she reached over and, with her thumb and first two fingers, grabbed his hand and shook it up and down. "Charmed. My name is Cadence James, the first, one, and only. If you want you can call me Cady, nobody else seems to have a problem with it."

He shrugged. "Well... you can either call me Warren or Angel. It doesn't matter which to me."

Cadence struggled a little to get away from Kurt, suddenly feeling how awkward this was. "Kurt, can I go now?"

"Say you forgive him."

"He didn't even do anything wrong," Cadence mumbled, avoiding Warren's eyes and pouting. "I'm just a bitch."

"Vell," Kurt chuckled, "you're not wrong about zat. But he apologized, the least you can do is say you forgive him."

"Fine, I forgive you. Can I get breakfast now, Kurt?"

Kurt let her go and she dusted off her arms. "About damn time! Why don't you go find some of the kids to play with, Elfie?"

"Oh, und leave you here to play vis Engel? I don't think so."

"Kurt Heidrich Wagner."

"Ach! Vhy do you have to pull out my middle name? Hmm?" Kurt pouted at her. "How vould you like it if I called you Cadence Cecilia James?"

"Stop using my middle name! I hate it!"

"Vell, maybe you should have thought of zat before you used my middle name."

"Leave, Elfie!"

"Hmmph, meinetwegen!" With that, Kurt vanished in a puff of blue smoke and the fading scent of brimstone.

"Gah!" Cadence waved her hand and glared at the spot where her friend had previously been. "Oh yeah, Kurt? You just guess who's getting their tail pulled by the lamp cord tonight!" She spun around, facing away from Warren, and crossed her arms under her breasts, appearing to be fuming. "Hmmph, what with all I do for the boy!"

Warren shifted nervously behind her, and cleared his throat softly to get her attention. "I, um... if you'd like, Cadence, I... could make you breakfast. I mean... as a, uh, a way to apologize for... everything."

She twirled back around, arms still crossed, and shifted her weight to her other side, sticking her hip out. "And what do you have to apologize about? You were just walking."

"Y-Yes, but I wasn't paying any attention and I ran into you. I'm very sorry that I made you mad."

She waved her hand, showing off her mismatched-yet-matching sword and shield rings. "You didn't make me mad, Warren. I'm a bitch, I overreact about everything. You ought to have seen, when Kurt first came here - poor guy got a knife to the ass thanks to my nature."

"I'm sensing that you don't like to let people in."

"I like my privacy."

"Still, Cadence, I feel bad about..."

"Well, in any case, you've already apologized. Several times. So keep your mouth shut. I'm making breakfast for the both of us. What do you like?"

"Oh, I don't want to take advantage of you..."

"It's not taking advantage if I offer. Now try having a damn opinion, will you?"

"I-I..." He hunched his shoulders a bit and reached behind himself to scratch the back of his neck, though his hand went a little lower, she thought. "I'm sure whatever you make..."

"Warren, for God's sakes!"

"I'm sorry..."

All of a sudden Warren glanced up to see two knives flying at him. He shouted and blocked his face, not really sure where to go. They were almost at his face...!

"Damn it!" Out of nowhere Cadence lunged forward, flinging out her hand and giving a short shriek.

To Warren's surprise, the knives stopped not two inches from his nose. He stared at them, cross-eyed, then snapped his eyes over to Cadence in wonder. "Wh... What did you...?"

Cadence was breathing hard, he noticed, and let her hand drop. The knives clattered to the floor as soon as she did, and just about her entire top half crumpled on top of the table. Her forehead landed with a thunk on the wood, and he could hear her breathing heavily.

He didn't dare go toward her, though he was very worried. "Cadence, are you alright...? What happened? Why did those knives...?" A million questions were tumbling tumultuously through his mind, but these were the only ones that found their way to his lips.

"Fucker," he heard her mutter from her folded arms. She looked up at him, and there was a decidedly vicious glimmer in her eyes. "Why did you have to go on with all that, huh?" She stood up, pounding the counter.

To be honest, he was a bit afraid of this girl now. She definitely had a less-than-savory personality to begin with, and it appeared that everything he did or said was irritating her further. Not to mention it seemed she was rather dangerous.

Cadence took a few more deep breaths before pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You scrawny little... pushover! What's the matter with you? Don't you have any views or beliefs of your own, huh?" She swept her arm across the table, knocking over whatever had been on it. "Whatever's taking the place of your spine, do yourself a favor - get rid of it and grow a backbone!"

Energy spent, she stomped her foot for emphasis and stormed out of the room, toward the stairs. Warren watched her for a minute, struck by her speech and also just observing her just in case she might collapse again. She was wavering a bit, looking like her legs might give out on her. He didn't want her to get hurt...

He gave a glance down at the knives. Maybe she wanted him to get hurt she responsible for those knives? Or was it somebody else who might have been trying to tease them? She'd never really given him an explanation. Maybe she'd done it on accident... she did say she'd done the same to Kurt once before, when they'd met.

"I guess she's just wary of strangers," he sighed, bending down to pick the knives - and what Cadence had knocked off the table - up. He walked over to the sink so he could wash them.

At this point, he could hear Cadence at the base of the stairs, yelling something at him. "And hey, Jellyfish!" There was a pause, as if she were thinking. "Don't trust anybody else to make your breakfast! Kurt'll draw Catholic symbols with pancake batter, Bobby makes ice angels in the yogurt which is frozen to inedible, and Beast sheds into the food!"

Warren gave a slight chuckle to this as he heard her head up the stairs. Well, at least she made sense with the others and...

... Wait, "Jellyfish"?

... Ffffffff~ I love the ending. Cadence is so mean to poor Warren/Angel.

OK, German translations (Cadence understands it because she spends so much time with 'Crawler):

Guten morgen = good morning

Dämonin = Demon Girl (it's actually her codename, Kurt just likes to say it in German to be affectionate)

Fräulein = Miss/Ms.

Engel = Angel

nein = no

ja = yes/yeah

jetzt = now

meinetwegen = fine

OK sooooo... *grin* I know it doesn't seem very dark right now, but given Cadence's disposition and powers... yeah, some people are gonna get hurt. I kinda want her to kick the crap out of human Magneto, but that would just be cruel. Then again, she's the type to kick people while they're down. Maybe she'll give Pyro a nice kick to the pants... punch Sabertooth in the face a few times... play steak knife darts with Logan as a target...

OH. I'm getting off topic, aren't I?

Any guesses as to Cadence's true, full powers? I gave away several hints... somebody's gotta guess! And if you guess, even if you ain't right, I'll give you a Gambit doll! *holds up plushie that speaks French*

Gambit: What da - 'ow the hell did you get those?

Me: Made 'em. ^^ *holds it away from him* C'mon! Jump for it, Cajun boy! Jump! Or I'll give them all to Pyro! And guess what? They're voodoo dolls!

Gambit: Y' mess 'round wit' voodoo? WIIIIIITCH! *runs away*

... REVIEWS WOULD BE NICE. I see Angel/OC stuff with many reviews... so I really hope you all like and review this one please! It makes me want to write more 'cause Warren's a sweetie pie. *huggles Warren* And if you review, you'll get a pair of strap on angel wings! XD

Warren: ... When exactly do you get the time to make these things? Between the dolls and these... *holds up pair of strap on wings* I mean, very lifelike, you must have a lot of time...

Me: Summer vacation, honey, summer vacation. *smile*

Warren: Okay... review then, readers! It will make her happy and she'll use me more often. ^^