This is a super crazy idea. Don't even ASK me how this happened. It just did. It's a really, really bad piece, but I just wanted to put it out there in case some weird person likes it. If you don't, please don't be mean. My mind works overtime during the exam period. :(

The epigraph is from "The Drumming Song" by Florence and the Machine.

"Louder than sirens, louder than bells, sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell."

Penny sighed and straightened her skirt. It was going to be a long day today, she could just feel it. A very, very long day. She tied her white apron around her waist and grabbed her name badge, pinning it to the belt of the apron. "Persephone Waters," it read. She felt like scratching her first name off. Persephone? Really? What had her parents been drinking?

She walked to the door and flicked the sign from "closed" to "open." Peeking under the sign, she saw the sky dark and overcast. The grey clouds hung shadily low, the whole road deserted and grey. It was an empty village in the English countryside. She furrowed her brow. Something was wrong...she knew they wouldn't get many customers today because of the weather, but still. Something made her tingle, made her twitch and shuffle her feet. Something in the air.

Her heels clacked noisily as she walked back behind the counter, sitting up on the chair and pulling a blank piece of paper towards her. Fiddling around for her pen just irritated her.

"Bloody pens...they never stay in the same place for more than five minutes, do they?" she muttered as she peered around herself. She finally spotted it lying suspiciously between the blueberry muffins and glittery cupcakes, both sitting quietly in cake containers with glass lids. She picked up the pen and pulled off the lid with her teeth, tossing her messy braid over her shoulder. She yawned and rubbed her left eye, bringing her hand away to see a smudge of black eyeliner on the side of it. Growling, she pulled a mirror out of the draw and wiped away the smudged eyeliner. The perils of running a coffee shop and a bakery by yourself: no time to apply make up properly.

Setting the mirror down, she picked her pen up and began doodling on the paper, drawing a young girl, her dress long and flowing. Her pen began to embroider the dress and she grabbed a glittery cupcake from the container, placing the glass lid back on. She carelessly scooped up some icing on her finger and began to lick it off as her right hand doodled, before she heard the bell tinkle quietly. She smiled and put down her pen, drawing a last flower before looking up. It was probably some traveller or hitchhiker in this weather.

"Hello."

The man in front of her smiled pleasantly. She blinked and quickly withdrew her icing covered finger from her mouth.

"H-h...hello?"

The man continued to smile pleasantly at her, his eyes sparkling.

"Do you do coffee here?"

She stood up and shook her head, trying to remember. For God's sake, Penny, you own this place, you know what the menu is. Do I do coffee? Coffee? What's that? It's not...not a cake. It's coffee. That's a drink.

"Yes. Yes, we do...I mean, I do coffee. Like, the drink, I mean."

He smiled easily, his hands in his pockets.

"That's great. I'll have a large coffee, then, please."

She turned around and pulled a mug from the wall. She kept her back turned and found tears forming in her eyes. What was going on? Her legs shook and she grasped the counter to steady herself. Setting the mug down, she was scared she'd drop it and break it. Breathing in and out softly, she blinked back the tears in her eyes and picked up the pot of coffee. She poured it slowly into the mug and gripped the counter. This man...this man was strange.

Turning, she grasped a pot of milk.

"Do you take milk?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, please. Just a little, if you will."

She poured it in dutifully and grasped a spoon to stir it with, chancing a look over at him again. A thick, dark shock of straight, messy hair fell about his eyes, his features strong and defined. His jawline could cut diamonds, his smile spectacularly sparkling. Her eyes roamed over him slowly as she stirred. A black vest with a black leather jacket on top...black jeans and a black belt and a black twisted leather bracelet. But the most striking thing about him was his eyes. Bright...bright, bright green. Almost splitting her apart. She clutched her stomach, his eyes blinked into hers, as if he wanted to absorb her into himself.

"One sugar, please."

She was shaken back when she heard his voice, deep, coming from somewhere low inside his chest. Her hand shook as she reached for the sugar pot, stirring it in slowly. She slid it across the counter to him and looked down at the till.

"That'll be two pounds, please, Sir."

He pulled a crisp five pound note from his pocket and offered it to her. She held it up to the light to check for the silver line as always, and the paper crackled in her hand. This was a fresh note, crisp and sharp. That was odd...why were there no creases and folds?

She threw away the thought and deposited it in the till, picking up three worn pound coins and pushing them across the table to him. He swept them into the palm of his hand.

"Thank you," he said with a smile, before he picked up the mug and walking to one of the tables, sitting down and looking across the shop. He was the only one there apart from Penny and she felt awkward...who was this man? She ached to speak to him and find out.

She sat back down behind the counter and bit her lip, looking down. She played with one of her rings before getting up and pulling the cloth from her belt. She walked to a table and squirted antibacterial onto the cloth, making to rub the table down. There was no way in hell she'd pluck up the courage to talk to him. She might as well do something active rather than sitting behind the counter like a lemon waiting for customers she knew were never going to arrive.

She bent over one of the tables and began rubbing it down, bracing it with both hands. The man kicked his feet up onto a nearby chair and surveyed her.

"Persephone. That's an interesting name."

She paused and looked up, swallowing.

"Yeah...my parents were really into Greek myths...my birth certificate says Proserpina," she attempted a smile and failed.

"Really? What's your brother called? Hermes?"

"No...Achilles."

"I should have guessed," he smiled easily, taking a sip of the coffee, "I never rooted for Achilles," he murmured, looking out of the window.

She didn't know what to say to that. She didn't really have unlimited knowledge of the Trojan War. She continued rubbing down the tables and moved onto the next one.

"This is really good coffee."

"Thank you."

"My name's Gabriel, by the way."

She smiled forcedly and wondered whether she should shake hands with him. She extended her hand.

"Hello, Gabriel."

He grasped her hand and she gasped in shock. It was warm. So warm, so tingly, so sparkly, so bright, so...heavenly.

He shook her hand once firmly and let go.

"I...I..."

Words were lost on her as she attempted to breathe, to reclaim that feeling. She wanted it again, she wanted the warmth and the heat and the sparkles and the light.

His eyes bore into hers slightly as he surveyed her over the rim of the coffee mug. He never took his eyes off her as she tried to think of something to say.

"It's nice to meet you, Gabriel."

"Nice to meet you too, Penny," he murmured, sipping once more.

She stared at him in shock.

"H...h...how did you know my name is Penny? It's Persephone."

"You said you shortened it to Penny," he smiled again and set the mug down.

"Did I? Yes...I did. I must have."

She turned around and bent over another table, rubbing it down again. Her breathing was going haywire and she tried to still her heartbeat that had somehow found its way to her throat. What was this man doing to her? Who was he?

"It's a nice place you've got here...small. Cosy."

"Yes...I run it myself."

"Alone?"

"Yes...I bake and brew work the till. There's not much to do around here."

"I guess not...," he muttered, looking around the spick and span coffee shop, now vacant.

The only sound came from Penny's cloth and his soft breathing. He set the mug down.

"Thank you for the coffee. I should be off now."

She straightened and looked up at him, shaking her head in hope that her stray hairs would fall back.

He looked her up and down. She was a pretty girl. Prim and pretty. The pretty girl who owned the bakery down the road. He smiled to himself. This world contained beautiful, rare clichés.

"Okay...have a good day."

"I will, I'm sure."

He kicked himself up from the chair and walked towards the door, the soft click of his boots on the tiled floor echoing around the shop. He grasped the handle of the door and cast a final look at her.

"See you around, Persephone."

With that, he opened the door and walked out, leaving the bell tinkling quietly behind him. She walked to the window and placed her palms against it as she saw him walk across the road of this deserted village, his hands inside the pockets of his jeans, his back hunched to protect himself from the cold. He ducked into the large, spacious cobblestone alleyway straight across from Penny's shop.

He paused in the middle of it and turned around to face her. Her breathing caught in her throat for a moment. How did he know she was looking at him? He smiled softly at her and his eyes sparkled again. He turned back around and shoved his hands back in his pockets. She licked her lips and watched him as he began to walk down the alley again. Then her head began to spin.

She watched in soft shock as something began to unfurl from his back. Something soft, bright, white...huge. Wings. She stared, her eyes unable to blink as she watched beautiful, soft white wings unfurl from his back, made of thousands of small, soft, separate feathers, evening out into large, pure feathers at the edge, sparkling even thought there was no light. They took up each side of the whole alley as he kept walking. He was beautiful.

Her breath came in short gasps. Gabriel. His name was Gabriel.